To all my old friends,

There are days it strikes me as so strange that I don't talk to you anymore. There are moments when something reminds me of you and I want to let you know, but so much time has passed that contacting you would be weird.

Look at how far we've come since those younger carefree days. The real question is, how did we end up here? How did we go from being best friends to practically strangers?

Back when we were friends, I never dreamed there would come a time you would not be in my life. I never meant to lose you, but it just kind of happened. Choices were made that led us both in different directions and now you're gone. Some of these choices may have been conscious decisions to let go of our friendship and others may have led to our unintentional drifting apart. Some already had all the signs of separation showing before high school ended and some occurred unexpectedly as we progressed through college.

Now your life is foreign to me. I no longer know what's going on in it, and I wish things were different. But life happened. We drifted apart without really realizing, and now the gap may be just too big to bridge. Given the chance, I'd love to have you back in my life; I miss being around you. Unfortunately, we're both so busy and living such different lives, that I don't know if this is a reality anymore.

I want you to know that I am still here for you. It does not matter how much time and distance is between us or how much further apart we may drift, I will always be here for you. If you need me, I'm never more than a phone call away. I once considered you one of my closest friends, and that still means something to me. Life may have separated us, but I still care about you more than you may know. If the day ever comes that you find yourself struggling, I hope you reach out to me. You will always matter to me, no matter where life takes us.

I hope wherever you are in your life, you're happy. I look at your Facebook photos and your Snapchat videos and hear stories from other friends, and I can tell you are doing amazing things with your life and being the person you were born to be. I hope you're proud of everything you've accomplished so far, because I know I am. Even though our lives don't overlap anymore, I'm sure you've had your share of struggles and successes. You've made tough choices and did what you had to do and you should be proud of everything you've done with your life.

To all the friends I lost along the way, I hope you took the time to read this. If you did, please know I'm speaking to you and I mean every word of this. I really do still care and I do miss you all. I recognize that life had different plans for us than we planned for as children. I'm mature enough to know we can't keep everyone we would like to in our lives. But little things remind me of you and I'll think of you at the most random of times. I hope you know every time I think of you I send positive thoughts your way; I wish nothing but the best for you. And I hope, if nothing else, you remember this: I will always be here for you.

To everyone else reading this, I hope you'll share this story for the friends you lost along life's path. I wrote this as much for you as I did for me. Maybe, like me, you think too much time has passed, that it would be strange to reach out after all this time. Maybe you're too nervous about how those friends would react. If you're like me, you wish there was a way to share how much you still care about those who may not be active in your life anymore. I hope this letter will help give you the words and the courage you have been searching for.

And who knows, maybe some of those friends you lost along the way feel the same way.

With love,

Allison