A Lesson In Friendship

Have you ever had one of those moments where someone tells you something and you are so completely taken aback that you lose your breath? Or it felt like someone punched you in the face?

I had a close friend tell me yesterday that after high school, she doesn’t want to be friends with me. She wants to “move on” with her life. She said that she knew we were eventually going to stop talking so she “might as well do it now rather than later.”

A little bit of background: This girl, whom we shall call Jay, is part Vietnamese and part Chinese and I’ve known her for twelve years now. I invited her to my Thanksgiving last November. My group of friends and I surprised her at the airport when she went out of town for two months and we threw her a welcome back party. We threw her a surprise birthday party. She went to homecomings with us and was there at every group gathering. She’s valedictorian. I played tennis with her and she eats with us at lunch. We were pretty close friends.

Jay had been ignoring her best friend and being rather rude to her but wouldn’t tell her why, no matter how often her best friend asked. I’m pretty close with her best friend as well and she was extremely upset, so I called Jay and asked what was up. The day after this was prom, and I didn’t want all of this going on at prom. So she replied that she was trying to slowly pull away from us, because she didn’t want to talk to us after we graduated.

How do you say that to a friend? Even a best friend?

She went on to tell her best friend that she enjoyed her company and had fun, but she didn’t mean anything more to her than another acquaintance she had in class. But I think what really hurts: she said she was “completely okay” if we didn’t want to talk to her anymore.

Do you just give up your friends just like that? You simply say “go away” and move on? How do you just forget all those memories you had with someone that you really truly cared about? She came to my Thanksgiving; I’m pretty sure she has met more of my extended family than Andrew has in the two years we’ve been dating.

There’s a lot more that she said that really stung. It really did feel like a slap in the face, like someone took my breath away. She was one of my closest friends, and I feel like I don’t even know her anymore. And while I know it hurts to me, it must be terrible for her best friend, who is completely heartbroken.

I’m not crying. At first, I was just completely shocked. I think I’m more disappointed than anything. You think you know someone – someone I’ve known for twelve years – and then they do something like this. Someone who you were really close with, did everything with. It makes you wonder if you truly know people at all.

And of all times for her to do this? The last month of school, right before graduation and all the awesome senior events. It was like she’s just trying to be malicious.

Prom’s tonight, but this ain’t gonna rain on my parade!

Bring On the End

This past week and a half has been a flurry of award ceremonies and work.

On the tenth, I had a Gold R awards Ceremony. (My high school’s name starts with an ‘R,’ if that makes the name of the ceremony and award more logical.) To qualify, a senior must have had a cumulative GPA of 3.75 or higher all seven semesters of high school. In turn, all of the qualifying seniors picked a teacher who had made an impact on them, influenced them in some way, or was just a great teacher.

I picked my French teacher, who I absolutely adore. I couldn’t not pick her – I mean I traveled halfway around the world with her for seventeen days. :P Right before we received our award, we were told to make a small speech about why we chose our teacher.

Note: I hate public speaking.

The Gold R ceremony was combined with a different academics ceremony, so there were probably 200 people there. I was internally freaking out and was trying to practice what I was going to say before I got on stage and had to speak. Which sort of helped, though once I got out there I only managed to say about half and babbled on for the other half. I think I did alright, but at the end my voice got a little squeaky. :blink:

Altogether it was really nice, and we posed for a few pictures afterwards. My French teacher is one that I don’t want to forget and I’m really going to miss her after I graduate. :/

On the fifteenth, I had my National Honor Society Investiture. This was a bit more formal and was held in a large lobby at my school. They had constructed a stage and set up tables before it (we kept comparing it to the Golden Globes :P). We would have held it in our auditorium, but our group wasn’t big enough and we would’ve been dwarfed.

We wore white graduation gowns and had a few teachers act as guest speakers. They spoke about the pillars of NHS: service, character, leadership, and scholarship. We then received blue collars to wear at graduation and were officially inducted as members of NHS.

On the sixteenth, I had the President’s Education Awards Program but I wasn’t able to get the night off so I missed it. :/ But I ended up receiving the plaque and pin today – I just missed all the food! Which everyone knows is the best part. ;)

I think all of these events have finally made me realize that I’m about to graduate and move on with my life. A couple of months ago, this thought made me really nervous. But knowing which college I’m going to, having committed, and received multiple scholarships (totaling $10,500 for my first year! so happy for that!) I’m really ready to move on. And my sister is currently moving into an apartment and helping her get situated has been fun because in the back of my mind I know that this will be me in about four months when I head off to college. 8)

One month left and I’ll be graduating! I have a few more ceremonies (as if there could be any more x_x ) and quite a few field trips. Plus Prom is Saturday. I’m just altogether really excited for this next month. My job kind of sucks, but I definitely feel like everything else is going just the way it should be and it’s going to be freaking amazing. :)

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