"I think one of the biggest lessons of growing up is realising that some friendships are only meant for a certain chapter."
Scrolling through my Instagram stories always makes me smile. It's where I get little glimpses into the lives of people who once played such a big role in mine.
One click and I see my friend from Ireland, whom I met during my year abroad, finally graduating and receiving the diploma she worked so hard for.
Another click and my best friend from high school is out having the best night in her university town.
One more, and I see the girl I used to work with announcing that she's expecting a baby girl.
I am genuinely so happy for every single one of them. Yet when it comes to my birthday brunch, I still invite only about five girls. Not because I don't care about everyone else anymore. But because somewhere along the way, life simply happened.
Every now and then someone new becomes part of my little circle, and every once in a while someone quietly drifts away.
Not in a dramatic, we'll never speak again kind of way again. More in a we live completely different lives now, and that's okay kind of way.
Friendships grow. They change. Sometimes they fade. And over the years I've realised that this isn't sad. It's natural.
Even though my closest circle still includes three girls I've known since we were about five years old, doesn't mean we were inseparable every single year.
We've had phases where we barely spoke. Life pulled us in different directions.
But somehow we always found our way back to each other. There seems to be a bond that time just can't break.
I think one of the biggest lessons of growing up is realising that some friendships are only meant for a certain chapter.
There are study friends. Work friends. Friends because your boyfriends play the same sport. Gym friends. And sometimes that's exactly what they're supposed to be.
Not every friendship has to become a lifelong friendship.
There are friendships you are convinced will last forever, but somehow end around the same time you stop studying for the same exam. And then there are people you meet completely by accident who end up staying for years. Life is funny like that.
So if you feel like a friendship is slowly drifting apart, don't immediately think someone did something wrong. Sometimes people simply continue walking down different paths.
That doesn't erase everything the friendship once meant. It just means its chapter might have come to an end. And then there are those very special friendships. The ones that somehow survive different schools, different cities, different relationships and completely different lives.
If you're lucky enough to have even one friendship like that, hold onto it. Don't expect every new person you meet to become that. Some friends stay for a season. Some stay for a lifetime. And both are beautiful in their own way!
