Burning Bridges

Relationships with other people can be associated with bridges that take us from one point in our life to another. You do not have to burn your bridges, or completely diminish relationships, to keep yourself from falling back into the same mistake or from repeating lessons hard-learned. People find it harder to work through their differences compared to forgetting about the person and problem all together but few realize the repercussions of not putting forth effort in trying to resolve an issue. I agree with the old saying, “Don’t burn your bridges” because it stands true in my real life experiences, and can still hold up in today’s society.
The most dramatic event that impacted my life the most would be my past relationship with Andy Smelik. We started off as the best of friends. Laughing at anything and everything, I got alone better with him than I had with anyone else in my entire life. It only seemed right to take the friendship to a different level and try to date. Turning the friendship into a relationship was one of the mistakes of our lives. For almost two years, we bickered and fought and worried each other sick. Adoration turned into insecurity, and then into paranoia. All in all, we had a nasty break-up and lost absolutely all communication between each other for another year. Becoming tender hearted after a year of recollection all the mistakes I had made during our relationship and wishing and hoping he would give me just one more chance, I started to hang out with him again. No mistakes were made on my part. He had turned into someone unrecognizable. After a second horrible ending to an attempted relationship, we once again lost all contact; talking to each other was simply out of the question. But after the second go-around, I had gotten my closure and I no longer yearned for another chance to be with this kid I had put on a pedestal in my heart and mind. I recently was at a party that he attended and it was semi-awkward for me, but I went out of my way to make sure he knew I was “cool” with everything. I was not going to try to make him date me and I held no grudges against him so we realized that we were merely acquaintances. After we hung out, talked about nothing and caught up on each other, I honestly feel as though I had gained my friend Andy back. Keeping in touch on and off simply as friends, we began to reconstruct our friendship. A couple weekends ago Andy called me while he was in Raleigh and he was lost downtown and was incapable of talking to an authority figure to say the least, and I stayed on the phone with him until he found his way home. Being there for him as a friend was not the same as it was when we tried dating. If I had burned my bridge with him, just leaving behind and destroying any friendship left, then I would not have someone who understands me so well and to whom I don’t need to explain myself. I have a true friend whom I can count on and he can do likewise.