Life Sucks When Your Friends Leave

It sucks when your friends leave.

I know this is just a fact of life. It was only three years ago that the naughty princesses began to split up—each going their separate way, each living their own life. I was the first to leave. I had been accepted into a master’s program not just in another state, but in another country. Next it was Cindy, when she got married and followed her husband far away to a desert place. Finally, Booty moved back home—leaving Snow as the only princess who didn’t leave. And it was sad times.

It sucks when your friends leave.

Of course that doesn’t mean you can’t be friends any more. You can. (Princess Power!). But it still means seeing your friends less often, not getting to talk in person over a coffee, but instead having to skype in your bedroom. It means never dressing up and going out together, never being all together again at the same time… I digress.

Friends leaving is a part of life. But I feel like it is even more so the part of life for those of us in school. The naughty princesses all went their different ways after we all finished our undergraduate degrees. Now I am doing a graduate program and it has the same problems: people finish, and they move.

This summer, my two best friends are both leaving. One, just finishing her undergraduate, has packed up for good and moved back home to London. In the fall she will be starting on her Law degree at a prestigious law school. I am so happy for her! But I am also sad.

It sucks when your friends leave.

My other good friend—who has been my close friend from almost my first term in England—is also moving. Last year she got accepted into a PhD program in a University of London college. She actually spent this year living in Oxford and commuting (because paying London rent sucks!). But next year she is biting the bullet and moving to London. She is leaving in a week. I am happy for her; inside she is a city gal, and I know she will like living in London better than being in Oxford. Also it will hopefully make her life easier with less commuting, less time and money being wasted on travel. So I am happy for her. But still…

It sucks when your friends leave.

Now, I know I am being a bit melodramatic. It is not like my friends are moving so very far away… in both instances they are moving to the big city that is only an hour and a half by train away from me. So, I know we will see each other. We will make it happen somehow. But still… will it be less? I know I should embrace change—it is the current undergirding life, making it exciting and new. But still, there is something deeply sad about watching your friends go, it is one of those parts of life that is unavoidable but still seems unfair.

So we shall see how it goes. But for the moment I feel sad. My friends are leaving me.