TeenConnect: Q&A March 9, 2020 Issue

When my friends dumped me

Jennifer Johnson

Originally appeared online in the teen series: Q&A - January 21, 2020

Q: My friend dumped me. I want another best friend, but I’m still mad—and scared of getting hurt again.

A: When I was in middle school, the popular kids isolated me for a mistake I’d made and then admitted to. This was so hard for many reasons, but the biggest was that they’d been my friends. Also, I’d been honest about my mistake, but others in the group didn’t admit the role they’d played. Yet I was the one everyone turned on.

For the rest of the year, I wasn’t invited to parties and no one wanted to talk to me. I ate lunch with the school counselor so I didn’t have to sit by myself in the cafeteria. I was tortured by thoughts of why my former friends didn’t like me enough to forgive me. My friends were my everything, so when they dropped me, it felt like I had nothing.

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