Thank You For a Great Friendship
In response to the prompt by Trista Signe Ainsworth, Your Loving Friendships
She had a beautiful smile.
She was kind, loving, and comforting.
She was gentle, with a sweet voice.
She was grounded, humble, but also a true believer in her opinions.
She stood up for herself and for others.
She was a free bird.
She was artistic, a storehouse of creativity.
Her life was filled with art, music, dance, and yoga, and that was why she was always at the top of her creative self, more connected to her inner voice than others, and paid no heed to any source of negativity.
Her childhood was spent amidst musical notes, Indian classical dance beats, and a bunch of cats and kittens whom she still adores.
She loved nature, peace, and mindfulness.
In school, she did not care if boys gave attention to her or not. She was dependent on nobody for her happiness but her own self.
I have never seen her complain, whine, or gloat.
She was pure and unmatchable.
She never cared how her body looked. She did things as they pleased her and never felt the obligation to justify or explain.
She kept life simple, even when her life was nothing short of a bursting volcano.
She had problems too, I knew.
But she remained unaffected.
I have known her for ten years and even though we have not spoken in the past few years. I know she will be the same person who will listen.
She was different than I was and yet we had a lot in common.
I met her briefly on my wedding day. She came with her same charming smile, showing me how genuinely happy she was for me.
After high school, as we distanced apart physically, I could not stay in touch with her.
We both got so engaged in our lives that we almost forgot about each other. We wished each other on birthdays on social media, but that was it, once a year.
In all those past years, whenever I was in my hometown, I often wished I could meet her, spend time with her, and catch up.
Even as no reasons justify why I didn’t take the initiative to do that, the fact remains that I didn't.
Life happened to me (and her) and I ended up focusing my time and energy on things and people that often brought challenges and cries. I followed greed, lust, and social compliance, whereas she remained original, unique to her own self, and kept going at her pace, with life.
We went on a road trip to Kerala, eleven years ago, just a few days before we were supposed to embark on our journey to the States as exchange students.
I have fond memories of her. No words will ever be enough to describe the purity of the relationship we had, a friendship of its kind, the one that came without any conditions or requisites, and the one that will continue to last for as long as one of us reaches out to the other.
Through this story, I want to say to my friend —
I love you. I miss you. I hate the fact that we are not in touch anymore. Thank you for being my friend, because I am sure that if and when you read this, the first thing you will say with a broad smile is, I am still your friend, Drashti, just like old times.
Thank you for a great friendship.
Here is a beautiful story by EllenEastwood about letting go of a toxic friendship, ending it with someone whom you thought was your friend —
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