Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Hard Lessons

“If people want to be in your life, they will make an effort to do so.”

I was reminded of this quote during a conversation I had with one of my co-workers this morning. She was struggling in a situation with someone in her life, so I mentioned it to her. It’s hard to hear sometimes, but I do believe it to be true. We all have had people in our lives that come and go through the years. Some of them become lasting friendships, some of them just passersby.

I have learned, the hard way, that if a friendship is only as strong as the effort and energy you put into it, it’s probably not a true friendship at all. It’s exhausting. I have had people like this in my life where I gave every ounce of myself to our friendship. I was always the one calling and texting and checking in on them, but when I pulled back a little, most of the time because life just got busy and hard, it surprised to me how many people I never heard from. People that I thought (and hoped) would be there, weren’t.

I’m not at all angry or bitter toward these people, just confused, maybe a little hurt. But it was a lesson worth learning.

I wanted to share this in case someone else needs to hear it too.