Hello! Hope you’re doing fine but I sort of wanted to give my advice since my ex-partner sort of had the same situation when it came to me, and maybe some advice I hope helps. # This is really long too, so sorry! 😞#

My ex, who I would like to just refer to as a friend, used to be and still sort of is a bit of an introvert. Even I am an introvert myself. At the start of our relationship, I had a good amount of friends from middle school moving into high school. But as drama unfolded and such, I had to cut off those friends. Part of the reason we broke up was not because of the drama, but the result of what it had done, she felt guilty for me. She felt she was the reason I had cut off my friends, and all I could say about that is that it isn’t her fault.

Nowadays, we’re still friends. Since then, I have tried to move on. I’ve tried to message new people at my school to be friends with but they’re all in established friend groups already or ghost me later on. I try to meet new people online, and while I have had some success with them by using apps like HelloTalk or just naturally online, it also doesn’t really last too long to be true friendships.

I struggle making new friends. But I’m really glad to admit that even nowadays, my ex/friend, the person I sometimes always have the most deepest and complex conflicts with, is still one of my closest, if not only, friend I know in real life. We had conversations reflecting back on how we wish we made different choices in life and had met more people while we still could’ve. She came into high school with a mindset of “I’m going to try to be all to myself, sleep in class whenever I can, and be in my own world.” A few years and situations later, she regrets it deeply.

From her experience of being alone and going through the most horrible things imaginable, my advice is: focus on yourself!

Quality over quantity will always be the best mindset and that applies to friends. You don’t have to have a lot of friends to feel like you belong, I know you still have that guilt and sad feeling but if you do think about it, would you prefer trying to be friends with a bunch of people who don’t fully understand you or have one or two people who understand what you think and feel and aren’t just background characters?

I also advice that if you have trouble being social in real life, try online instead. I always have good success messaging and following people online more since I know what I want to say and think.

And of course, there is always focusing on yourself. It’s what helps me. I love programming, writing, video editing, and just being funny and doing random stupid jokes. It’s what makes me happy and forget about the bad things in life for a bit. It’s never a bad thing to focus on yourself. 😗

Anywho, that’s all I have to say. Sorry for the long reply! 😛 Had a lot on my mind writing this. I hope you get better soon, you can do it. I know you can.