Why Do Friendships End?

Is it due to the weight of our differences?

Image by author

Journalist Lysandra Ohrstrom — Ivanka Trump’s former best friend — wrote an in-depth article for Vanity Fair magazine in which she chronicles her relationship with the former New York City socialite. From school bestie to maid of honor at Ivanka’s wedding — the two women had built a long-term friendship that “finally broke under the weight of our differences,” Ohrstrom wrote. (source)

I will spare you the details, as it is not Pulitzer Prize journalism, but one sentence, one concept, stuck with me long after I had regretted falling victim to such brainless clickbait.

The weight of our differences.

Those five words spun in my head like a catchy song on repeat. I loved the idea of our differences described as having weight, mass, and density. Like the straw that broke the camel’s back type of concept, but a bit more abstract.

Why do friendships end? Is it really due to the weight of our differences?

My personal experience with friendships that are no longer active fall under two distinct categories. Firstly: the most common explanation is geography. People relocate. I have moved not just from city to city, but from continent to continent.