Recently, I ran into an old friend. We had been super close for many years, but just fell out of touch. She said I never texted her anymore, and we should hang out. Throughout the conversation, I was thinking that there was a reason I hadn't spoken to her in so long, and I wasn't about to start up that friendship again. It's not like she stabbed me in the back or anything; the problem was that I had outgrown her.
That sounds like an odd thing to say about a person, but it's true. She and I had been friends since the first grade, and she was (and still is) a nice enough person. In hind sight, however, I was her doormat. Anything she wanted to do, I did, even though most of the time I had zero desire to participate in whatever activity it was. She did not return the favor. Of course, I didn't realize this until many years after the fact, when I stopped letting people treat me like that. At the time, however, I wanted to fit in, and all of the popular people liked her. Maybe she would make me cooler.
She didn't make me cooler. Instead, we gradually stopped being best friends. She drifted toward the popular kids, and I drifted toward a friend group that didn't treat me like a doormat. They treated me as their equal, and I slowly learned that following someone around like a puppy does not count as a good friendship. When I ran into my former best friend, I hadn't realized how much I had changed. I had grown into a more mature person, and there was no place in my life for the friendship I'd once had with her.
I feel the same way about a lot of things from my past. For example, it has always been popular practice to revisit past teachers. I always said that I should go back and see my old teachers, but I never seemed to make it. The truth was, I never really felt the need to go back and relive the past. I am not the same person I was five years ago, and I don't think that fact really needs to be proven to my seventh grade teachers. I have opened and closed too many chapters in my life to spend time rereading ones that are hundreds of pages behind me.
Now that I have graduated high school, I have the same sentiment. Yes, there are teachers there that I love and that I will truly miss, but it's time to move on. All of the teachers and friends I have had before have taught me everything they can. I've passed all the necessary classes to receive a diploma. I have passed all the standardized tests. I have learned how to be a strong, independent young woman. It is now time for me to move away and learn what my future friends and teachers have in store for me.
Maybe one day I'll see a previous teacher or bump into an old friend. We'll probably have a nice discussion about what's going on in our lives, perhaps reminisce about the past, but that will be it.
