Growing up. Relationships flourish. Relationships fade.

It's strange to think how people come in and out of your life.  Some for reasons you understand, some for reasons you don't.  When you think about it, the life stage one is in depends on who they allow into their live...and again, who they don't.

As a junior in college, I feel like I have had a good number of relationships with people that just didn't work out.  From generic friendships to relationships, all of them happened because at the time, it worked out.  But we all change, and we all go down different paths.  I'm not close with the friends I had in high school that didn't choose the college route.  It's not that we aren't friends anymore, I still love to catch up with them on occasion!  We just went down separate paths.  And someday maybe those paths will cross again.  Then there's the relationships in high school and early college that just didn't work out.  But at the time were great.  But because of these relationships, lessons have been formed.

Each person crosses your path and comes into your life for a reason.  Different people come into your life for different reasons, different lessons and to experience different "mistakes."

Maybe it's the friend you meet in a college course.  You simply just help each other get through the class together.  Your path's crossed because of that class.  And maybe at the end of the course, your path's will go separate ways again, or maybe you will remain friends.

Maybe it's the guy you met while you were in the middle of ending a long term relationship that lasted two years.  You thought it was going to be great, but in reality you got to watch it crumble.  Maybe that person crossed your path for that brief instance to let you learn from your mistakes and to help you move on.  To learn that some things were just not meant to be and that it was time to let go.

Maybe it's the one girl in your large group of friends growing up that you never went to school with but always hung around with. Your paths crossed in and out for years and you end up becoming best friends.

Moral of the story, cherish the time you have with people in life that stick with you through everything.  Ignore the ones that only want to be in your life when they need something.  And definitely weed out the people that bring you down.

So many people will cross your path in life, through many different life stages.  All of the relationships you form are significant.  But realizing why each person has come into your life, and why people grow out of your life, will make moving on from all kinds of relationships that much easier!