Not everyone who comes into your life stays there.
That's hard to accept. Some people matter for a season. Some grow alongside you. Some drift. Some come back years later. Some become memories you're still glad about.
Friendship is easy while life keeps putting you in the same room. Same class. Same school. Same neighborhood. Same faces every weekend. You barely have to think about it. Life does the work.
Then it changes. People move. Change jobs. Start families. Get busy. And friendships that took no effort suddenly take effort. Not because anyone did anything wrong. Because life moved.
Some grow stronger. Some fade. Some disappear. Some surprise you and become more important than they ever were.
That can feel sad at first, especially when you realize caring about someone doesn't guarantee they stay close.
People change. Circumstances change. You change.
The friendships that survive are the ones somebody kept up. A message. A phone call. A visit. A small effort repeated over years.
They don't usually end in one go. They fade. One missed message. One cancelled plan. One busy month. Then another.
Nobody has to hate anybody. Life just pulls people in different directions. That doesn't mean the friendship wasn't real. It means relationships need care to keep growing.
Small things matter. Checking in. Remembering. Showing up. Making time. Saying "I still care."
Friendships don't stay the same. They either grow or they drift, and the difference is usually in the things that look too small to matter.
Then, before you notice, another kind of relationship walks in. One that teaches most of the same lessons in a completely different way.
Love.