Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

People change and people change you. It’s a fact. Think about it. Who do you know that has had the same personality, appearance, interests, and perspectives from the first time you met them? Not many. People come in and out of your life and the experiences you have with them leave footprints on your journey through life. They are not always longlasting friendships, but there are certainly lessons from them that you learn from and now live by. Personally, there was one person in my life who changed who I am today because she changed. From this lost friendship, I believe losing friends can teach you as much as having them.

I met my former best friend my first year of high school. Her name was Brooke and she lived in my neighborhood and was on my bus. We became very close friends and told each other anything and everything. I cherished our friendship because our personalities clicked. She was the shy timid one who had all the gossip, while I was the outgoing boisterous one who had the best stories. We learned so much from each other and when she suddenly moved to France because of her mother’s job, I was devastated.

I had never had such a big part of my life enter my world just as easy as it left it. I was now alone in high school because she was the only person I spent a lot of time with. Extremely depressed about her departure, I would not eat or socialize with anyone. I was an outcast. After a year of serious medical problems and emotional instability, I learned that I had to be an individual and have my own path in life. I could not rely on anyone else to always be there for me. I was on my own and I was scared, but I started fresh and embarked on another path in my life.

Over the next couple years, I was mad when she started to make new friends and alienate herself from her previous life: me! In typical Brooke style, a follower, she started following another crowd, who partied and drank a lot and were extremely trendy, which was not the Brooke I used to know. She would call once in a while, but it was not the same. Eventually we were two different people living two different lives with few things in common and the relationship died out.

Brooke has moved on. She has conformed to a different lifestyle and become a completely different person due to the strong influence of her environment on her. The relationship taught me to be a stronger person and to accept things that you cannot change. I believe this experience taught me how to cope with things you cannot control and make the best of the situation. You cannot depend on anyone but yourself to always be there for you. You cannot expect to go through life with others always by your side. You cannot expect that people will always be the same and not grow and develop into different people.

From this experience, I have become a different person: confident, independent, a social butterfly. I may have lost a close friend, but I have gained so much more. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be who I am today. Therefore, people change and people change you. You learn just as much, if not more, from losing their friendship than actually keeping it. This I believe.