Tuesday, September 16, 2008

By Request

The Wrong Kind of Closure *

I remember the day I wrote that card, it seemed almost trivial. I was sending a card to my best friend to say goodbye. We’d grown apart in the last months for a reason that I will never be able to figure out. It wasn’t my choice, but I was dealing with losing him. He was having surgery, though I wasn’t ever told the details of it. I thought it was a good time to send him my best wishes, we’d been through so much and I thought I knew what he needed to hear. It seemed like the right thing to do, I wanted closure. I wanted to be able to say it was done, ended on a decent note with a kind goodbye.

We’d been through a lot together, and even though we weren’t always close for those two years, he was always someone very important in my life. This card was meant to give me peace of mind, so I could think of him in a good light even though I was so hurt from our ended friendship. I was so close to not sending the card. I forced myself to walk down the stairs, open the door, and place it in the mail box. I even stood there and questioned if I should put the flag up. But I did, I put it up and walked away, and my card was carried away that day. It honestly slipped my mind for about a week.

Then it happened. Wandering on Facebook, bored, I stumbled onto a post on his wall. I read it innocently enough, not realizing what was in store. I remember reading it, almost a year later, so vividly. My stomach dropped and my heart almost stopped. I couldn’t focus, and I couldn’t understand what I was reading. There they were. My words were telling him that I would always care. They were telling him that I would always love him as my best friend. That he meant so much to me, even if he had always believed that he meant so little to the world. That I believed in him. Those were my words, but they were said to him mockingly, by someone who wasn’t me.

I was changed after that day. It broke my heart knowing that my best friend, who I’d turned to for everything the past two years, would throw it away for no reason – and then laugh at me for it. He showed other people one of the most personal things I’d ever written on paper, and openly ridiculed me for it. It tore me apart like I was that paper, found to be as worthless as he had considered our friendship.

It wasn’t the first time he’d thrown me out like that, but I made sure it would be the last. Learning you’re better off from a long friendship is hard, and you can’t ever really recover. I don’t think I want to fully recover, because I want to remember. I want to remember that I’m better for moving on, and I want to remember to never treat the people I’ve cared about that way. I lost more then just a friend that day. I lost trust that, since that day, I haven’t been able to give. It’s more painful then just growing apart from your best friend. I wanted closure, I wanted peace of mind. I did get closure, but not the kind I wanted.

You want to leave old friends on good terms, so happy memories don’t make you cry, so if you see them somewhere you aren’t afraid to say hello, so you don’t cringe every time someone mentions their name, so you don’t sit across from them in a classroom and wonder how their life is without you. I didn’t get the closure that I wanted. Eventually, with time, I’ve gained peace of mind. We both ended up okay, I’m happy and I’ve gained new friendships, I’ve learned, I’ve moved on. I know I’m a better person, I learned a valuable lesson, but that moment in time when I felt so humiliated will always be there.

* Posted with permission of the author, Precious Youngest

11 comments:

Swirl Girl said...

poor girl -
sadly, it seems you learned a valuable lesson about words and friendships.

choose them carefully.

Anonymous said...

Have not been reading long, but I admire this post (and it's writer). I still remember when that happened in my life. Friends will be trusted again, but it takes some time. Brilliant post. klcrab

Mrs. G. said...

Ouch. Sometimes I hate the internet. It is so easy to be mean-very little accountability.

Holly (me.) said...

My heart just goes out to Precious who was treated with little regard for her feelings and heart. This is not the stuff that friendships are made of, and there are far better companions to be found if one does not stop looking.

Anonymous said...

You have a good girl there, Fannie.

Maggie, Dammit said...

Whoa.

That must have been so, so awful.

I'm sorry. :(

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

I was so thrown for a loop--thinking this was an adult friendship of yours.

It looks like she's processing this hurt and learning from it with style and grace.

Fannie said...

A lovely sixteen year old girl did not deserve to have something this humiliating happen in such a public forum. I'm just sayin'.

Vanessa said...

This reminds me of the poem, "A reason, a season, a lifetime" Don't confuse the kinds of friends, some really are meant to be with you a lifetime and will bring some of your best memories.

Anonymous said...

Oh that poor girl. Technology has definitely tossed a wrench into the workings of modern relationships and the way we treat each other. I feel fortunate there was no internet when I was in high school. The potential for damage is unparalleled.

Shelley said...

Wow. It's terrible when some people have so little regard for others feelings. If anything good can come out of that, I think you do put more thought into how you treat others after something like that happens to you. What else strikes me is how well-written it is, and with no red pen editing. She writes so well, and not just the mechanics, but the feeling. Thank you, Precious Youngest, for allowing your mom to share that with us.