Get rid of toxic people

I think most of us assume that we will leave high school with the same people we enter with. We make college plans with our best friends and talk about how much fun we’re going to have once we’re out of high school. Sometimes we get so caught up in planning for our futures together we overlook how we are feeling in the present.

I know, personally, I did this for years. I always wanted to believe that we would stay friends, we would go to college together, we would find out all of the things the adult world had to offer together. It was easier to think about how great things will be in a few years than to deal with the problems in my friendship now, so that is what I did. I didn’t want to give up on a friendship that I had put so much time and effort into even if maybe I wasn’t really all that happy.

High school is hard enough to deal with even when you have your friends by your side, so it's easy to understand why people would rather stay with a group of friends who are toxic or maybe you just don’t click with anymore. It seems to scary to do it alone. What if you don’t find new friends? Who will you sit with at lunch? What are you going to do on the weekends? These are all valid and sometimes the most terrifying questions to have, but from someone who has experienced this it’s worth it.

People to look out for are: people who are constantly spreading negativity, people who criticize you all the time, and people who always play the victim.

It is so much better to learn how to be happy with yourself than to stick around people who make you feel inadequate. You will find new friends, you will have someone to sit with, you will learn so much about yourself, and it will end up being the best decision you ever make.

Burning bridges with toxic people leads to so many new and exciting experiences with people you may have never met had you not made a change in your life. Most importantly it leads to a strengthening of the most important relationship you will ever have; your relationship with yourself.

I know it seems like the end of the world and you might be scared you are making the wrong decision, but just know that every decision you make opens up new doors and new ways to go from there. There aren’t really any bad or good decisions just new opportunities.