What’s a moment in your life that completely changed your perspective on something?
That happened to me when I was a kid. Anyway, in middle school, I was friends with people who were way out of my league—really smart in school—while I, on the other hand, sucked at it. Bear in mind, I was friends with them as people, not because I wanted anything from them. I never asked them for anything.
Other classmates called me their dog, but I didn’t care—I genuinely loved them as my friends. But people clearly felt jealous of our friendship. There was this girl who suddenly wanted to start being their friend and push me out of the picture. (I say "suddenly" because it wasn’t random—it was the end of the year, and exams were around the corner, so she probably wanted to benefit from them to get better results.)
Anyway, she started walking with us on the street, cracking jokes here and there. And somehow, she pushed me out of the way—literally—and they left me to walk behind them. At that moment, I realized my classmates were right: I was a dog all along, lol.
This girl and I lived in the same neighborhood, so while the other girls went their separate ways, she walked with me. But instead of being nice, she insulted me the whole way. She said I was useless, a loser, and didn’t deserve to be their friend. Of course, that really hurt. So the next day, I told my “friends” about it. And guess what? They didn’t believe me, lol.
I had been their “friend” for a whole year, and they chose to believe this girl they just started talking to the previous day. They said, “She wouldn’t do that; she’s a good person.” Like a loser, I started crying. I wish I could go back to my past self and tell her not to cry and just end that friendship right there. But nope—they chose her because they found her funny.
That moment changed my whole perspective on friendship. I stopped forming emotional attachments to people.
