I Was Jealous of My Friend’s Dating Success
I started dating to compete with her and ended up hurting innocent people.
A few years back, a friend from work and I independently decided to break things off with our respective boyfriends. Though we still had strong feelings for our former partners, they just weren’t right for us, and we both felt like we deserved better.
Before both of our breakups, we had been fairly close friends, through our shared struggles with life and career-building in our early twenties.
After our breakups, that changed. Whenever I saw her, she’d tell me about her dating experiences, about hooking up with hot men on Tinder “just for sex.”
Whenever I asked her to hang out, she’d give me excuses saying that she already had plans with someone else. Whenever we finally did hang out, she’d ask me if I was dating anyone. My answer was always no.
Over time I started feeling resentful. Though I’d nod my head sympathetically when she told me about her latest night out, I quietly judged her. Why was she suddenly so obsessed with dating?
And why were these random men suddenly more of a priority than our friendship?
