Dear high school best friend,

It used to break my heart thinking about what happened to our friendship when we both went our separate ways after high school. I think about all the late night Wal-Mart runs, the inside jokes and the laughter that brought us to the floor with our stomachs hurting.

When we were finishing up our senior year, we both knew we were going in opposite directions, but we crossed our hearts with a promise that we would never let it come between us. We had heard all the stories about how we were being naïve and that our friendship would soon come to a close. We ignored all of those people because there was no possible way that would happen to us.

After graduation, we did really well with keeping in touch, talking any chance we could. Then move-in weekend came along, and I had to leave town to start my new journey. We did not know this was going to happen. We thought we were special and we could make it through anything – through thick and thin, we used to say. As always, our parents were right about our relationship coming to an end. Yes, we don't talk anymore. We don't even follow each other on social media anymore because of how our friendship ended.

I wanted you to know that even though we do not call each other best friends anymore, that does not mean I do not think about you, and I hope you are doing OK. Because we were once best friends, my care for you won't just stop with us not being friends. You were once my person.

The first few months of college were the hardest without you. It seemed as though we would always call each other when life got to be too difficult. Then I started finding people, people who cared about my well-being.

Now I do not think about what life would be like if you were still part of mine. I do not dwell on what happened to our friendship that we thought would last a lifetime. Now I get to hope you are doing OK and you have found friends who truly will last a lifetime. Maybe we will cross paths later in life and we will rekindle. If not, I want to say thank you for all of the memories that we have together. I hope you have the best of times and never forget how truly amazing you are. For now, I do not need you in my life, and that is OK. We will both make it through just fine.

I'm finished thinking about what could have been and will now be thinking about all the amazing people I have yet to meet.

Thank you for the laughs, the late night drives and the sleepovers.

Your high school best friend