I had a best friend one time. She was my best friend for 14 and a half years, we even lived together at one point. We did everything together. That girl was my “ride or die”, my “soul sister”, we called each other's family our own. If it was my grandma it was her grandma too. She knew all my secrets, all my insecurities, everything about me. She knew me better than I knew myself. Turns out that girl that I called my best friend for 14 and a half years, was just like everybody else. She turned against me in the blink of an eye. She used my insecurities against me. She wanted to tear me down. I wasn’t going to let that happen. I never let anyone bring me down, at least I never showed it. That girl is just like mostly everyone else in school. I have learned more about people in school than I have about any subject. This is how it all started, what it led into, and what I have learned from it.
It all started with my best friend. She and I had several other people we hung out with.We had lots of different types of friends. We started hanging out with them more frequently. That was all we did throughout the summer. There was a group of seven of us that were always together. We had so many friends and people to hang out with. If one of us was going to do something “rebellious” then we all did it together and never let anyone do anything stupid alone. People that used to make fun of us even stopped because they knew it would be seven against one. We stuck together. My best friend ended up dating basically every boy in that friend group, there were four boys. She wouldn’t ever want to hang out with me because she was too busy with her boyfriend. They would break up pretty much right away and then she would try to come back to me and that friend wouldn’t want to hang out when she was around. That’s when I realized everyone had started drifting apart.

My “best friend” thought that she could come in and out of my life whenever she wanted. I wasn’t going to let that happen, so I started to distance myself from her. When she realized that I didn’t want to be friends with someone that thought they could come in and out of my life things got worse. She started lying to me about things, and even lying to others about me. One time when she saw me in the school bathroom when she was with her new best friend, she made fun of my biggest insecurity. She makes comments about me behind my back and other people tell me about it. She wants to hurt me but I’m not going to let her. After I distanced myself from her everybody else started leaving too. Nobody stayed. I still talk to some of those people but it isn’t the same. They act like they like me but end up talking behind my back. That’s what everybody in school does these days, right?

Moral of the story is, you don’t need anyone but yourself. Look at me. Sure things get hard, but I’m doing great without my so called “best friend.” If you just love yourself and learn that you are the most important person in your life, it will be so much better. I learned that I shouldn’t count on anyone but myself and that everybody will eventually leave. I learned that i am the most important person in my life. The only person that you can count on to be there to pick you up when you fall, all of the time, is yourself. We truly only need ourselves.

When I walk past my ex best friend in the hallway I just see somebody that I used to know. I think of how much better my life has gotten without her in it. I think of the good things rather than the bad. I think of the things that make me happy because that’s what should matter the most, me. This is how it all started, what it led to, and what I learned from it. Nobody should depend on another person even if it is their best friend. We never know when they are going to leave. If we don’t want to be let down anymore, we need to see that we are the most important person in our own lives.