Friendship

I've had a lot of friendship problems in my life. I spent my first eleven years in Germany, with most people only staying there for two or three years. The longest friendship I had lasted five years. By the time I was in year six, there were only three other people who had started school in the same year as me. We all moved at once, and the small bond we had shattered. All of my friendships shattered when someone moved house. To this day, there are people who were my best friends, and I have no idea what happened to them. They just left one summer, and I haven't seen or heard from them since. Because of this, I have some pretty serious trust issues when it comes to friendships. When my first real best friend moved away at the end of year five, I was heart broken. Her parents were both teachers and we held an assembly in their honour, with a song written for the occasion. I couldn't sing. I managed the first verse before breaking down. I spent the rest of the assembly with tears streaming down my face, unable to speak. No-one said anything. We started our friendship in typical child fashion: she said to me 'will you be my best friend?' and I said yes. It was like a contract, but it worked. Simple though it was, she was my best friend for three years-not long to most people, but for me it was far longer than I could have hoped for. Maybe that's why no-one said anything. It started simply, and maybe that's how they expected it to end. It didn't. I was so upset. I had treasured our friendship-we both had-and now it was being ripped apart. I wrote my first story for her, about going to the circus, in year four-but I didn't write another. Maybe if I'd know she would be leaving I'd have written more. But I didn't know she would leave and I didn't expect it. Maybe that's why friendships have been so hard for me ever since. Maybe it isn't. But that's why I'm writing this: friendships will always mean everything to me, and I want to record every moment of them.