I usually don't like to ask others for help, but if it's anyone, I'd probably choose you--your advice seems very helpful.
My best friend and I used to be inseperable, and then this year she got a boyfriend, and she's become a tad.. colder. Things that wouldn't have bothered her normally like us dressing similarly, me acting a certain way, etc., seem to come off as very hostile when she talks about them. I hate that we've grown apart, but it kind of gets worse.
Her boyfriend, who I used to be VERY close with, has become a very cold person as well. A few months back, he tried to talk to me about something that I apparently needed to change with my dating life (I'd been making dumb decisions about the guys I was dating--only two guys, nothing horrible), and I guess in his mind, I blew him off, so he got angry. So, in studyhall last week, he pulled out a list he (and possibly my 'best friend', I'm not sure if she was involved, because she's said nothing) composed, as to why I'm a "preppy skank". It was composed with twenty-six reasons, including most of the mistakes I've made this year, and things I tend to do that come off as 'skanky'. (For example, I 'flirt' with guys I have no intent of dating, and wear slightly revealing shirts). He completed his list with a humungous list of fables and claimed he had to do it this way because I 'wouldn't listen' last time, and this would make me listen.
I actually sat there and cried--I never let people see me cry. It was so embarassing, and it took me everything I had to not walk out of that room and tear the sheet up, to be honest. As this was going on, he continued to list reasons. A friend of both of ours even sat there, saying they weren't true, and trying to bring humor into the situation, and the boyfriend continued to insist it was all true and say how I've become a 'bitch' and a 'skank' lately. I haven't been able to talk to anyone about it besides two of my best guy friends, because he claimed I was ignoring him then, too, and it'd be hypocritical if I went and ranted to others. (I only didn't speak, because most of his reasons were, in fact, hypocritical in themselves, and I was crying, so..)
I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go from here, really. I've been avoiding him, and things have remained the same with my best friend. But ugh. It bothers me, most of the list was utter bull, and even the things that were true.. it bothers me. I've been so tempted to write a whole contradictory list back.
I speak a lot about control in my letters to people and who you give that control to. Are you going to give that up to your friends? Are you going to let what your fiends say and do decide who and what you are? If you are, it's going to be real confusing, because everyone has a different idea as to who and what you should be. One of the most important things in life is to be who you want to be, you have to live with yourself 24/7. You have to look in the mirror and like what you see.
Never put up with someone who tries to make you be something you are not and never read anything someone writes you that tells you who to be. The instant you realized that that was what the letter was about, you should have stopped reading it and gave it back to him. You are not interested in dictators that would have you be who they want you to be.
Your relationships with both of these people are over. Understand I am not telling you what to do, but rather stating fact. They FEEL they are above you, don't ever hang with people that feel they are better then you. We are all human beings and deserve respect for that. Those who think they are above you are delusional, it's call it a god complex. We are all at different stages in life, but none is better then the other, just different.
Stick with people who accept you for you and any friend who will sit by and let their boy friend tear you apart, I would question whether she is really a friend.
You honor me with your trust and words and I would be honored to be your friend. Settle for nothing less, expect nothing less from yourself and from others. Who you are is precious, don't leave that to someone else.
Hugs my dear, think about what I have said for awhile, then write me again, questions or no questions, write me.
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