Having a best friend is the best. You watch TV together, laugh together and do homework together. You share your secrets, your clothes and your lunch. You know each other so well, it’s like you share a brain! With so much in common, you know you'll be best friends forever.
Well, maybe.
Sometimes friends change. They start hanging out with other people. So now what? Do you cry a lot? Write them nasty letters? Vow never to speak to them again? Or try to accept it and move on?
Change is part of being alive. We all change, and even best friends can drift apart.
Three teens tell how they survived losing a best friend.
Sandra, 16
I felt down and really confused when my best friend of four years changed. We broke up over a silly fight. I tried to talk to her, but she said to forget it. I still see her around and we talk once in awhile, but we don' t really have anything in common. She' s really changed with alcohol and smoking. I' m frustrated because her new friends don' t really care about her. I'm more of an independent person. If the only way I'm going to impress her is to change, then it's not worth it. You have to weight the pros and cons about best friends. Are they worth keeping? Are they getting you in trouble at school or with your parents? If they are, you' re probably better off without them.
Robert, 14
I moved away from my best friend about four months ago, but he was changing even before I left. Maybe he was a bit jealous because he thought I liked his brother better than him. I write to my best friend but he doesn't write back and I'm kind of upset. We've been best friends for six and a half years, so he's hard to forget. I really want this friendship to work, but there's no sense trying and trying if they don't want to help out. I've been making new friends at my new school. I just go up to people and start talking to them. If you don't have somebody to talk with, you get frustrated and keep things inside of you. I listen to other people too, and we try to solve each other's problems.
Kelly, 13
We were best friends for nine years, ever since kindergarten. She was always there when I needed her. Then last year we had a fight. I even forget what it was about. We kind of made up, but it didn't work. I felt pretty bad after we broke up. I thought if this is what best friends are, then why bother having them? I became rather snotty and lost other friends. But I got over that and I realized that not all best friends treat you that way. Now I don' t know why I ever became friends with her. She takes drugs and has weird friends. When we broke off I didn't know she was taking drugs. But I didn't want to get into drugs just to be her friend. I have a new best friend now. She' s nice and she cares about what happens to me. I hang around in a group, and if someone in that group lost a best friend, we'd kind of be like buddies until they were over it.
