There are circumstances and instances that arise during a friendship that can change a strong bond you have formed, but when is it time to say good-bye to a childhood friend? When you realize that you have grown apart? When you simply do not have anything in common? Is it okay to abandon someone that you've known all of your life?
From experience, I learned that the friends who are willing to open up and tell you the truth, no matter how much it hurts are the friends you keep. Those friends are true friends who tell you the truth only because they want to see you succeed. They will be able to comfort you when you are down, they will be able to keep quiet when you need a moment to yourself and they will be able to sugarcoat things when it is unnecessary to verbalize the obvious. Those friends are worth preserving.
It is however, okay to abandon or further yourself from those childhood friends who simply do not understand you. You try and try to keep up that old relationship that you once had, but realize that you have changed as a person, or they have. Maybe you got married? Maybe you got divorced? Maybe you are still single in a group of gal pals that have another half? We all know that people change. But for those who can not accept the current status of who we really are inorder to grow with the friendship, then sadly, I say it is time to move on. People are disposable. Just like a pair of old sneakers that have too many holes to be repaired.
The bottom line is that even if there is a history between two people, if your present can not be preserved, then there will never be history in the making ever again.