Keeping Your Enemies Close and Sometimes in Your Corner

When people show you who they are, believe them. When people who matter to you confirm who those people are….believe them.

I have a “friend” that I have known since high school. Our friendship fell a bit off track when she graduated, and I moved away from home after college. But when I returned home, we quickly fell back into a friendship, especially since we had kids that were close in age.

For years, my husband has told me that my friend hated me, but I always thought that was laughable because she never did anything to show me she hated me. Well, except for repeatedly sharing an unflattering story about me from college that I think she may have been too drunk to remember correctly because it never sounds accurate. Oh, and frequently reminds me that one of her best friends happens to be a girl who became an enemy over a boy (that is a whole other story).

Now, I know what you are thinking…I sound dumb af. Which as I reread those words, I would agree. But while those two things are problematic, she has been a friend to me over the years. Even taking my son off my hands for a night when my husband was away, and it felt like the world was crashing on me. I didn’t even ask; she just did it because I was breaking down.

But maybe that is the thing: people have no problem supporting you when you are drowning. But when you are thriving, you are too caught up in doing well that you overlook them quietly exiting your corner.

I want to see people win. Strangers, friends, and every black woman who crosses my path (as long as she has crossed me). There have been plenty of days where I was definitely losing, and while I may have felt a slight pain that I wasn’t where I wanted to be when I saw someone else winning…I never thought I hoped they failed.

It is thoroughly bizarre to me the effort people put into hoping others fail. While I don’t know if my “friend” wants me to fail, it was an eye-opener when I saw her share a random white woman’s post hyping up a local black-owned business. A business that is in the same niche as mine.

But my “friend” doesn’t share my business content. She has never purchased from me, and I can’t remember her liking or engaging with my business content. Not that she owes me her support, but I find it funny that she will share a complete stranger’s content before double-tapping on my business post. While there have been other red flags that I have overlooked, for some reason, that was the breaking point that made me realize maybe our friendship isn’t what I thought it was.

I have been unintentionally keeping my enemy closer than my friends.

Lesson learned. I’m just glad this wasn’t a hard one.