We were supposed to be friends forever. We were supposed to be each other's maids of honor, travel together and when we grew up our daughters would also be best friends. We made all these plans; we were inseparable; we were connected at the hip; we did everything together; we were "best friend goals." We were supposed to be best friends forever.

But somehow, amid the stress of college, family, work and other relationships, we grew apart. I don't know that we could pin it to one specific thing, but through a series of events, our friendship ended. And it hurt like hell.

As our friendship was crumbling, we both tried to some extent to mend things, but I think deep down we both knew it was already done for. As our friendship was crumbling, I also found out that though I had told you all of my secrets, and you knew everything about me, you were lying to me. You had lied to me for two and half years. You had put up a facade for me, and I learned that what we had was never a true friendship.

So that's the first thing that I learned from you; people put up facades, and they can be really good at it.

Another thing I learned from you is that you can't trust everyone.

Actually, there are very few people in whom you can completely put your trust. I trusted you with some pretty heavy stuff, and you shattered that trust into a billion pieces. No one has ever done that to me. So thank you for teaching me this, because I won't let myself get hurt anymore because I trusted the wrong person.

There are a couple more things I have learned from you.

One is that people change and that it's OK, and it's beautiful. People grow and change for the good. I think in our case, I was the one who changed the most. You were fake the whole time. I finally opened my eyes and realized that I was being played, realized that I had true friends whom I can trust and that you didn't truly care about our friendship. You told me that I changed, and I openly agreed with you.

I changed.

I changed for the better.

Finally, and most importantly, I learned from our broken friendship the importance of forgiveness.

For a considerable period of time, I tried and tried and tried some more. I prayed and prayed and prayed some more, but I couldn't forgive you. I was so hurt from how and why things ended, and I just couldn't bring myself to truly forgive you. It was something that I was really struggling with, and I could tell that it was weighing me down and bringing me down.

But today I want you to know that I have truly, genuinely forgiven you.

I won't let myself get close to you ever again, but I forgive you.

I hate that our friendship ended, especially that it ended the way it did. I really do wish you the best in life, and I am grateful for the lessons that I learned from my broken heart and our broken friendship.

We were supposed to be friends forever.