Breaking up

In romantic relationships there are many acceptable reasons, why break up with someone. If your temperaments are not compatible, if you have nothing in common or nothing to talk about, if you don't really like the other anymore, if you have different expectations... In friendships, however, there are no such excuses. Once you form a friendship, you are expected to stay in it. Unless a serious betrayal has taken place, there is no accepted way to end relations. Either the friendship fades away(you just don't see each other that often, or you are too busy) or you stay friends.. If you are friends with someone for a really long time, it is natural that you become different people than who you were. That is a part of growing up:-) But suddenly you are so different that you probably wouldn't become friends if you met right now instead of years ago. The most problematic part is that both parties involved don't really acknowledge the change that has happened during the past years and still expect the other to be the same as before. When they're not, they feel cheated.. Is there a way to prevent that? Can we end relationships of any kind easily and forever like pulling off a band aid? Should we end friendships at all? Shouldn't we try to look at the person in front of us rather than see the person that we knew several years back? Should people try to be in a friendship with someone significantly different? Is it enriching or annoying?

You say something mean, something that you don't even mean. You just blurt it out. You regret it the second you do. The more you think about it, the stupider it seems to have even said it. The main issue is that even when you say you're sorry and/or try to make up for it, you have still said it in the first place. The word (or the sentence) hangs over your head and you can't escape the fact that you were mean for no good reason (is there ever one?). Could it be that what we blurt out without thinking says a lot about who we are? Maybe more than sentences and statements that are thought through? And if the answers are yes, then ... who are we?