I’ve been randomly running into some really close old-time friends I grew up with. Some were from school, and others were people I grew up with in the same neighborhood. It’s crazy how life works. People you were once inseparable from gradually drift away, and you don’t even notice it happening until one day, you realize how different things have become.
In between the high-pitched screams of excitement while meeting again, all the memories came rushing down on me. I remembered the times we made promises never to lose touch, especially after one of us had to move away. We really believed we would always be close, like nothing could come between us. We’d always sit together, laughing at silly jokes only we understood, or scrambling to meet school project deadlines that kept us up late into the night.
But here we are now, and everything has changed. Life has moved on, and so have we. All we have left now are the memories. As the years went by, life took us in different directions. We made different choices, chased different dreams, and slowly, without realizing it, we grew apart. The bond we once had is now just a memory we carry with us.
Listening to Taylor Swift’s "Long Live" brought back all of those feelings. The song made me realize that sometimes, you get to a point in life where all you can do is hold on to the memories of the people you were once so close to. In the song, she talks about making magic with her friends and having the time of her life fighting dragons. Not literal fire breathing monsters, but all the challenges and difficult moments we faced together back then, challenges that felt so big, but we handled them side by side.
She clearly holds those memories close to her heart and wishes they would last forever. That hit me hard because it’s the same way I feel. We don’t always get to keep the people in our lives the way we want. The truth is, most of the people we meet won’t always stay. Even the ones we thought were going to be there forever, the ones we laughed with, cried with, and did life with, sometimes they slowly fade into the background of our lives.
It’s easy to wish we could go back to those moments. But we can’t resent the people we’ve grown apart from. That’s just life. That’s part of growing up. And even if things aren’t the same, I still think about all my friends. Some are still finding their way through life. Some I’ve sadly lost. But every single one of them is a part of my story, and I hold every memory dear.
I hope those memories live long. I hope the laughter, the promises, the late-night talks, and the moments that shaped us will stay with us. Because even if we’ve moved on, the love and friendship we shared back then was real, and it deserves to be cherished and remembered.
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