There was this girl, let’s name her Star. She was my best friend from Kindergarten to 4th grade.

Our friendship was rocky because, as time passed, more people hung out with us, making the friendship circle bigger. There were four of us including me.

Star was that one person in the group that was always nice and humble. She would always bring snacks for us and buy us things. Everyone took her for granted and would ask her to do them favors.

“Hey, can you do this for me,” one of my friends said.

Instead of standing up for her I joined the bandwagon and bossed her around too because everyone else was doing it. At the time, we all thought it was cool to make someone do things for us, without thinking about their feeling.

We Constantly bossed Star around for a while, to a point that we started teasing her because everyone thought she had the best facial reaction. But did we pay attention to her actual feelings? It got to the point where she couldn’t take it anymore and started avoiding us.

I knew that something was wrong because I didn’t see her for a couple of weeks.

Then I saw her hanging out with these two girls and she looked so happy. They weren’t mean or bossy compared to how we treated her.

At that moment, I realized my biggest mistake.

Fifth grade came around and everyone made new friends while our group totally fell apart.

The two other friends moved on with their lives and didn’t even care about the things they did to Star. I, on the other hand, regretted the things I did because they were cruel. Not only that but I lost a best friend. She was my true friend that always had my back but I ditched her to fit in.

When I realized my mistake, I wrote her a letter and apologized for all the things I had done.

“It’s okay,” Star said with a sad look on her face.

The sorrow look on her face explained it all as she walked away. I knew she didn’t want to reconcile with me but for the sake of our four-year friendship, she didn’t want the problem to get any bigger.

After elementary, we went to the same middle school but she left mid-year of 6th grade to Texas and that was the last time I saw her.

She came into my life and taught me to be a better person. This mistake has taught me to be nice and kind to everyone because you’ll lose people in your life if you are a fake person.