My Reply

Dear A-----,

You want us to open up the conversation so we can heal from this? After your last two messages revealed the truth, there is nothing more I need to know. I may have been more hurt from your silence in the past but I have learned to move on. I am healed now. If you need to heal then feel free to keep sending messages. Sending them for my sake is moot. Now we can go back to being Facebook friends (since that's all we really are) and carry on with our lives as usual.

You're right; we could have had four or more happy years. The thing is, on my long road to recovery and in this age of reinventing myself I no longer look at "could have" and "what if". They have no relevance in the present. There are two things you can do with the past: run from it or learn from it. You cannot relive it. We are different people now. The person I am forgives the person you were for ignoring who I was. Now what kind of friends are we going to be? I don't know who you are anymore. I still care about you, but in what capacity? I don't know. We have traveled in such opposite directions since being naive undergrads in Fulton. I have learned a lot about myself since 2009 and some of it is because you stopped talking to me. Perhaps, in a sense, I am a little thankful for your absence. I like who I am now and if you want to be friends that's just fine with me. I am strong enough at this point to not let the past get in the way.

- Kerry