By Amanda Earp
Copy desk chief
I have learned something over the years through my past friendships and relationships: sometimes you need to cut all ties with someone.
This probably sounds extremely mean and makes me seem like a horrible person, but hear me out.
My senior year of high school and freshman year of college I was “friends” with this guy who was constantly making promises he would not keep (especially about me and him being together).
Me, being young and naïve, believed every single one.
He would walk in and out of my life in dramatic fashion and for some reason I always allowed it, accepting every excuse he gave me and believing every “I won’t do it again.” He had had a hard life and I would chalk every lie he told up to that fact.
Eventually, I got tired of him always expecting me to be there for him. I came to the conclusion that “If he was never there for me, why should I be there for him?”
During my freshman year of college, he called me one day, after we had not spoken in a few months, asking me to meet him to talk. I reluctantly agreed.
After listening to his endless apologies and how much I meant to him, he said he had to go but wanted to get together the next day.
I told him one thing before I left, “If you don’t plan on staying in my life, I don’t want to talk to you again.”
I’ve yet to see or speak to this guy again and I could not be happier. It has been so relieving to not have him in my life.
It also changed my perspective on a lot of things. My life went from being dramatic with him in it to completely drama-free without him. I am definitely better off without him in my life.
He is not the only person I have cut out of my life.
I have had multiple friends who would lie about things, were extremely dramatic about everything and I could not rely on, even though I was always there for them.
To put it bluntly, these types of friends are not worth the effort and I do not need them in my life.
Think about it. Why would you want to be friends with someone if you cannot believe anything they tell you?
Why would you want to be friends with people who think they are the center of the universe and everyone should revolve around them?
Why would you want friends you cannot count on, even though you go out of your way to help them? You shouldn’t.
Personally, I do not have the time for people like that. So what I have done is stop talking and hanging out with these people.
Currently, I have a friend going through a situation where my advice to her has been to cut a few of her so-called “friends” out of her life.
These “friends” have been treating her poorly, lying to her and doing things behind her back.
Unlike me, she is a nice person who does not like people being mad at her.
I keep telling her that real friends would not act this sketchy and that it is OK to cut these people out of your life.
See, what may seem like a bad thing actually isn’t. By taking these people out of the equation you will be making your life a lot better.
Life will be less dramatic, less stressful and you will be surrounded by people who care about you, not just someone who pretends to.
Amanda Earp is a journalism graduate student from New Waverly and the copy desk chief for the Lariat.
