My Friendships Ended in Painful Awkwardness, But I Found a Sweet Solution
I can master how I think and feel about people.
After I moved away from home, three friendships in a row ended in painful awkwardness.
I was socially inept. An overly attached weirdo. Surely that’s what they’d seen in me?
Not fitting in with my new social circle was embarrassing. I knew I should tell myself we just weren’t a match. Yet instead, I replayed what went wrong. I internalized my unattractiveness.
The problem got bigger still. I missed almost all my past connections at times. I wished our bonds could live forever. I’d remember people I used to know through work, ASU, or OkCupid, and I’d think, “Oh, I probably disappointed them. They probably remember me as some weird person.”
All this time, a sweet and obvious solution stared at me. Eventually, I started putting it into practice:
I can’t control how people feel towards me, but I can master how I feel about them.
As long as I feel at peace towards a person from my past, well, I’m at peace!
Their imagined opinion of me isn’t important. Their well-being matters deeply, of course, but that’s beyond my…
