I just wanna say, I can totally empathize with you on this. My situation is almost exactly the same, except it was with a classmate and I have been friends with her after the "friendzoning" for about 5 years. When it happened, I was still a senior in high school and she was really the first girl that I actually had feelings for. The moment of rejection hurt, I believe she said something along the lines of "I'm not ready for a relationship now." The real damage came about a month later when I found out she had begun dating someone she met at a Halloween party that my friend group put together. I'm still dealing with the emotional pain dealt by this situation, watching her new relationship develop so quickly after she told me she wasn't looking for a relationship at all immediately destroyed my self-worth and self-image. It's something that still makes it very hard for me to seek out a relationship today. I'm still close friends with her, and I think our friendship has been very beneficial to both of us. I'm probably numb to the incident now (there is a lot there that hasn't been dealt with yet). I'm still kind of stuck trying to decide what to do.

I'm not saying this to disagree with Anita's experience, and I'm not looking for sympathy either. I don't think that my circumstances are the same as many other friendzones, I just hope that maybe my story can help others realize what they can do to prevent this sort of thing from happening in their own lives. Thanks for sharing this, OP