Harper's Bazaar | 2020 Was The Year of Lost Friendships
was always skeptical of the adage, “You can probably count your true friends on one hand.” That blunt sum felt impossibly restrictive to someone who prides herself on having formed and maintained many meaningful friendships. And then in 2020, my world became drastically smaller. Everyone’s did in various unexpected ways. Last year wasn’t only a period of self-isolating, social distancing, and seeing less of our loved ones; it also culminated in a number of ended friendships. However they played out—in the form of intentional breakups, passive dissolutions, or conscious “unfriendings”—last year’s stressors were an almost undeniable factor in these demises.
It’s taken me nearly six months to fully confront, but I lost a best friend last year. She was a daily presence in my life. We shared private pet names for each other, and hours-long hangouts invariably ended with dozens of ensuing text messages just moments after one left the other. She was the first person I called when a terrible tumble with my bike left me bloody and limping—and she was there by my side before the blood had dried. It was the kind of friendship that felt too familial and solid to fail. And then, inexplicably, our few in-person interactions during the summer turned strained and awkward, and for whatever reason, neither of us wanted to address the uneasiness.
