How I let go of a friend with Questionable Character

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It may sound unrealistic to let go of a friend of more than two decades. In fact a friend of many years. It wasn't easy but I had to let her go because of her character.

We've been friends since our university days. She happened to be the first friend I had immediately after I had been admitted into the university. Our friendship endured for many years and recently I had to let it go because it was no longer making sense to me.

How can I make friends with someone who is the direct opposite of who I am? It all happened that this friend of mine defrauded someone using my name and as a result of that, my name and reputation were tarnished. When I later approached the person who was defrauded and asked why she would fall for such a cheap prank, she said that she mentioned me as her friend, and that made her believe that she could be trusted.

I felt so bad that I had to pay the lady what she had been defrauded of. As a result of this, I had to disassociate myself from her. This happened to be the last straw that broke the camel's back. There are other cases of lies and deceit that I had to cover up.

This is what happens when you make friends with people who have questionable character. It doesn't only hurt you, but also people who might have known you from afar. People may know you as a highly moral principled person and may speak well of you. As a result of this, they may as well rely on those they go out and hang out with.

As it is often said that birds of the feathers flock together, so do friendships. You cannot be a better person and enjoy the company of bad people. People with moral decadence. Such a relationship is like a time bomb awaiting detonation and when it detonates, it is bound to consume you as a person.

It was my joy to put an end to such a friendship. Since I made that decision, I don't have to cover up lies, I don't have to play along to make someone happy and I now have the strength to rebuke her when I see that what she's doing isn't right, unlike before.

Let this be a lesson to you reading this, as we've entered into a new year, put that friend who is not depicting your morals and values aside. You may not know the weight that you'll take off your shoulders. Make that decision now.

I am calling on @gloreal, @mmenyene, and @team4 to participate and share their thoughts on this week's topic.