u/crunchylettuce24

Someone born in 1900 would’ve lived through World War 1 & 2, the 1918 influenza outbreak, the Great Depression, and later the threat of nuclear annihilation.

Go back even further for most of human history and life was essentially bone crushing farm labor for 12 hours a day just to feed yourself and your family.

So yeah, technology might be isolating people, the job market is cooked, dating is impossible, prices are out of control, but so what? Life sucking is nothing new. Every generation yearns for the good old days that weren’t actually all that good

"You can't give up on people", I was always taught this growing up. My mother had a friend named Amy that would openly belittle and insult her all the time. It was sad to watch. My mother was genuinely a good person but her downfall was thinking everyone else was also a good person.

"Amy's my friend, she would never hurt me intentionally. This is just a misunderstanding. I just have to talk to her and smooth things over". And so she did, every single time she would be the one apologizing to Amy and trying to do damage control. My mother blamed herself for all the friction and "misunderstandings" in the relationship, even though Amy was the one starting every fight.

I unfortunately inherited this attitude and went through life being a punching bag. If someone disrespected me it was just an accident and I needed to talk about my feelings with them....but then it would happen again, and again, and again.

Disrespect is all the closure you need. When your "friend" calls you stupid, or ugly, or otherwise humiliates you, that's your signal to stop associating with them. Don't say "oh they were having a bad day" or blame yourself, that's them telling you they don't value you. Every friendship or relationship I've had that's lasted and has had a positive impact on my life has something in common, I never had to tell the other person not to talk to me like that. If they do it once, they're testing your boundaries and they will definately do it again.