By Siya Gauri Singh
You’ve been friends for a long time. Good friends. You’ve grown up together, shared milestones and made countless memories together.
You used to see them every single day… until one day, you didn’t.
You would tell them every single secret…until you didn’t.
You would talk for hours on end…until you didn’t.
What happened to ‘best friends forever’? Being there for each other? Counting on each other?
We were meant to grow up together – but we grew apart instead.
You’re just not into the same things anymore. You try to talk, but you don’t have the time.
They’ve found some new people and so have you. It feels like at some point, both of you let go.
And that’s okay.
From Prep to Year 12, so much changes. Your favourite colour, the people you meet, what you want from your life, what interests you. Everything changes. And with that, you change as well.
Everything’s changing — all at once. And within all this change, the concept of forever just doesn’t seem to fit anymore. Maybe forever isn’t even real. Maybe it’s just a story we tell ourselves.
Why do we believe that friendships that last forever are the only friendships worth having? Nothing lasts forever. But that’s exactly what makes it all the more valuable. Our friendships, our moments, our life; it’s here right now…until it isn’t.
I swear I was in Year 7 just yesterday, and now I’m about to finish high school. The friendships I had from then have changed, they have evolved just as I have. I don’t see my Year 7 ‘best friends’ every day. Sometimes, we only talk once every few months, if at all.
And that’s okay.
Because the value and the beauty of those friendships don’t lie in their longevity, they lie in the impact they have on me. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I hadn’t met them. Experiences, lessons and memories we shared have shaped me into who I am today.
In this fleeting life, the faces that stand by you and the people you stand by will continue to change. What matters though, is that at one moment in time, you did stand by each other. At that moment, you were there for each other. And that feeling, that impact, is what will stay with you forever.
