So…hi 🙁 I’m Monica. I’m 22, a senior in college, and I only have like two close friends right now, which is great, but not that easy, because they both go to a faraway school (while I live at home and commute to a smaller, closeby school). They also both have boyfriends, so they’re not always around to talk to. I work for a public relations committee, and my job is exhausting along with school, so I don’t have very many friends around here, seems like everyone has their niche anyway. I also haven’t had a boyfriend in three years. I’ve dated, but most guys want flings, and I don’t..so I end up being pretty lonely haha.
Overall, it’s hard not having many people to lean on and support me, and I’ve recently made a friend who’s also an English major like me; her name’s Ashley, and she’s extremely overweight, and for some reason, it seems to bother people a lot. my brother says she’s “gross,” and even my friends laughed when they saw her picture. A guy who always flirts with me in school once saw me talking to her, gave me the weirdest look ever, and walked away. The next time he saw me, he didn’t even speak to me. My mom thinks that I have “low standards” for talking to someone who looks like her, and that hanging out with her in public will make me look bad and make people not want to talk to me. People who are close to me keep saying things like, “You’re a pretty girl, in shape and you maintain yourself, why do you talk to someone like that?” And I don’t know how to respond to that. Are they right? It just seems so awful, but it seems like everyone, not just friends and family, but even aquaintances that I just say hi to and make small talk with at school treat me differently now that I talk to her. She’s a sweet girl, so why are people acting like this? What can I do?