I had a long term friend who I recently stopped talking to.
She was my best friend when we met, we were extremely close for years.
My best friend/roommate and I brought her back into our lives in college because we remembered that time in our lives with a certain degree of fondness–probably incorrectly.
At some point we began to drift apart; I saw after a time that she was unwilling to treat herself or others with a certain basic level of respect and care, but I did not respect myself enough to step away.
Things finally came to a head as a result of her behavior; she spewed vitriol at me I couldn’t imagine coming from the mouth of a friend, even more so someone I had put so much trust in for so many years.
We haven’t spoken in almost 3 weeks.
Over those three weeks I’ve felt a burden that I’d been carrying for a long time lifting off my shoulders, all the eggshells I’ve had to walk on are swept away.
I see more clearly than before that the tangible, valuable parts of life are found in the relationships we form and explore with our friends and loved ones. Friends who find the need to detract from these relationships and actively sabotage them, for whatever reason, don’t deserve my time or my emotional investment.
After putting so much into our friendship over so long a period of time, I can’t help but feel a lack of closure now that she is so suddenly no longer a part of my life.
