u/thesecretfemme

Is this just what adulthood is? Friendships fading at 21 and I feel so alone.

I’m only 21 and my relationships with people have changed so much compared to 3–4 years ago.

My friends and I talk way less. People barely respond to messages anymore. I honestly don’t even know how my so-called best friend is doing these days. I’ve brought it up with a few of them, and they mostly say they’re just not on their phones as much or they don’t have time between everything else.

These are genuinely my closest friends… the ones I always end up going back to. But now I feel like I’m not being heard at all.

Is this really what life is? Do I just have to accept that it’s never going to feel the same again because we’re all growing up, changing, and running out of time? I’ve started feeling really alone even though I’m supposed to have people around me.

Anyone else gone through this? How did you deal with it?

Hey everyone! For some context, I work as a hostess at a 5-star hotel. I started about 40 days ago, so I'm still fairly new. The coworker in this story ("A") is best friends with a server I’ve previously complained about (who literally bullied me—whole different situation), and I’ve got a feeling that some of this behaviour against me is a little purposeful.

Anyway, yesterday a family of three (two parents and their little boy) came in. We were fully booked at the time, but we had 2 or 3 empty tables left.

Initially, I seated them at one of the available tables, but they very politely asked if it was possible to move somewhere a bit quieter. I checked my remaining options and noticed an empty table in the back corner of one of the sections, which was definitely a little more peaceful.

The table had been cleared, but it hadn’t been set again yet. So, I told the family to go grab some food from the buffet, and by the time they got back, we’d have it all ready for them.

I went over to tell "A" (who runs that section). Before I could even finish walking up to her, she snapped: "Don't tell me you want me to set that table—I don't have any forks."

I calmly explained the situation, but she started yelling, complaining that she already had a table ready somewhere else. Indeed, she did have a ready table, but it was right in the middle of a high-traffic aisle, and the guests specifically asked for quiet. Besides, if she literally had a table ready right there... couldn't she just grab the cutlery from that table and quickly move it over to the corner one? I get that it takes extra effort when we're busy, but it's literally her job.

Am I missing something here? I’d love your opinion and help because I’m truly baffled.

Hello all! I’m a 20F restaurant hostess. I started hosting last year at a 5-star hotel and recently moved to a new 5-star hotel about a month ago following some disagreements at my previous job.

Ever since I started at this new location, a few of the older servers seem to have an issue with me. Now, I know servers and hostesses butt heads sometimes, and usually, you just communicate through it or brush it off to get through the shift and get the work done. But there’s one specific male server in his 40s who seems to hate everything I do.

He constantly claims I double-seat or overload his section, but the reality is the hotel has a capacity of 1,200 and we’re currently sitting around 1,000 guests. The restaurant is extremely busy, and most days I run out of open tables entirely because we're so packed… He also keeps making passive-aggressive comments about me needing to memorize all the table numbers, even though managers and other hostesses have confirmed this isn't strictly necessary. He only brings this up to me, no one else (though I am planning to start learning the table numbers from tomorrow).

Moreover, he constantly criticizes my work under the guise of "jokes" that aren't actually funny. Today, during a massive rush, a guest in his section asked for a bottle of water. I asked him if he could bring it over since he hadn't noticed her yet. He snapped at me abruptly and claimed she wasn't in his section—when she literally was. I felt like I was going insane and had to double-check with my supervisor, who confirmed it was his section. He just automatically assumed I was wrong because he doesn't trust me.

I know I'm young and still gaining experience, but this treatment is wearing me down to the point where I'm in tears almost every shift.

I finally brought it up to my supervisor today, who spoke to him. Now, he barely looks in my direction and has gotten his circle of server friends to completely freeze me out, too. He’s actually great at his job—and I’ve told him many times before—so I really don't understand what I'm doing wrong or how to handle this.

I don’t know who to turn to for this. It’s currently almost 6 a.m., and I haven’t slept a wink after working a 12-hour shift.

I am 20 years old. My mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was only 6. My dad never cared enough about either of us; he worked, but barely brought any money home despite my mom’s condition. They finally split when I was 12. A few years later, my dad got sick as well, but he still never helped me financially, even though it was his legal responsibility. My mom could barely raise me given her long-term health issues and the meager government assistance she received. Despite everything, I managed to graduate high school, even after having to cut off multiple friends who made me feel like a burden.

Now, I am three years into a university program that I genuinely hate. On top of that, I’ve been battling depression, anxiety, OCD, and intrusive thoughts, specifically a constant, paralyzing fear of my mom dying. After losing two people to sudden deaths this past year, loss is all I can think about.

Right now, my grandma is in the house with us, slowly dying. It could be a matter of days or even hours. I haven’t slept at all because she keeps shouting out in her delirium, which has been incredibly traumatic to witness. I am so utterly exhausted, both mentally and physically, that I don’t even feel like I'll make it to 25. It feels like my life was written solely to be a tragedy.

Please, tell me what to do. Does it get any better?

Was it, like, after 20 chapters, for example? Or perhaps after reaching a certain amount of reads?

hi all! i hope you’re having a great day/night 💐

i was just wondering—do wattpad stories get more traction once they’re completed, or after a certain amount of time passes? i began posting my book a while ago, and after a point the reads started becoming significantly less, despite having 10 chapters posted and updating systematically. specifically, it got worse as soon as i hit 1K reads.

thank you all in advance :)

edit: i’m also asking because i have seen stories bloom overnight. is it an algorithm thing?

i really don’t know where else to say this right now. i’m so incredibly concerned for ariana, and i have been for the past 2-3 years since the wicked era, but seeing how she looked tonight genuinely scared me. she looks like she can barely do anything PHYSICALLY.

please don’t get me wrong; i know she’s done a lot of things i don’t agree with, which is why i stopped being a fan the way i used to be about half a decade ago. i’ve been REALLY disappointed in so SO many ways. but none of that erases the fact that i’ve loved her since i was 11, back in the dangerous woman era. she genuinely helped me get through my parents’ divorce, she made me fall in love with music, and for years she was my biggest comfort person.

seeing her like this now just makes me so incredibly sad and devastated. she cannot keep going like this — genuinely, she CANNOT. at this point i really do think it must be some kind of sickness, because i refuse to believe the people around her are just doing NOTHING. can’t they see how bad she looks? she’s LITERALLY fading right in front of us. snark aside, no one should wish anything bad for her (or anyone).

i’m just so scared for her :( as someone who used to be her biggest fan, i don’t know how i’m gonna handle it if anything happens to her. and maybe a snark page isn’t the best place to share this, but i honestly have no one else to talk to about it.

seriously, what happened?

hi everyone. i’m super new to posting on wattpad as a writer (i’m writing a fanfic right now!) even though i’ve been a reader for 8 years and a silent writer for 6. i just had some questions about a few things i’ve been noticing lately. i'm curious about some things, so i wanted to see if this is all pretty normal and get some of your advice.

i posted my story 5 days ago and after doing some promo on tiktok, i’ve already put up 8 chapters. i just hit 800 reads, which i am SOOOO incredibly grateful for. however, i’ve noticed a few patterns that have me a little confused:

1. the drop-off in reads: i’ve noticed a pretty massive decline in reads from the first chapter to the latest ones. even my second-to-last chapter has triple the views of the chapter i uploaded yesterday. is this a normal reader behavior pattern? does it just take time for readers to catch up, or is it an algorithm thing where newer chapters don't get pushed as fast?
2. lack of votes/comments: most of my votes come from my sweet friends, though there are a handful of wonderful strangers voting too. i’ve only had 4 people comment so far, and that was only after i explicitly asked for feedback in the author's notes. i know people say readers just forget to interact, but is a low engagement-to-read ratio typical for a brand new book? how do you gently encourage people to comment?
3. the initial algorithm: i don't know if it’s just me, but it felt like in the first couple of days, the algorithm was pushing my story way more through the tags. the past day or two, my stats have felt completely stable and almost frozen. does wattpad give new books a temporary boost when they first launch, and then it levels off?
4. what is the best posting schedule? since i'm trying to get the algorithm to love my story and push it more, what do you suggest for an update schedule? is it better to post daily, 5 times a week, or should i slow it down to like once or twice a week? i want to keep my momentum going but i also don't want to overwhelm my readers.

i’d love to hear your thoughts or any insight you have. thank you all so much!

Hi everyone, I’m hoping to get some perspective on this, whatever that is (encouragement, validation, advice, criticism… anything 🥲). Six years ago, I wrote and completed my first ever book. I basically grew up with my main character since I’ve been with her from my own teenage years into adulthood.

However even after all these years, I still can’t move on from her or her story. I’ve tried starting many other projects, but I haven't been able to finish anything else. I know a lot of that is just uni and general writer's block, but it feels like the real issue is that I’m still too attached to her.

Earlier this year, I wrote an epilogue to that story which I felt was necessary, and I don't regret it. Objectively, there is nothing else I can say now... but I still feel the urge to write about her and keep her (and the story) around.

I think I would have been fine with this if I didn’t feel like I’m constantly bothering my friends about it. Is this normal? How do you move on from a character you’ve basically grown up with and you genuinely can’t let go of?

Hi everyone! I started wearing contact lenses about a month ago and only put them in 4-5 times initially. I then took a full week off because I didn’t need them.

A couple of days ago I tried putting them back in, and my eyes completely rejected them. As soon as they go in, I start tearing up badly, my eyes feel very itchy and irritated (I can only look down. As soon as I look up, it feels like my eyeball is about to fall out).

It first happened with the right lens, but after some persistence I can now wear it comfortably. The left one, however, is still impossible. I’ve been trying for two days straight and it’s the same reaction every time.

One weird thing I noticed is that the left lens goes in extremely easily and comes out just as easily? It feels kinda looser than the right one. I would also like to add that my optician told me I can wear these lenses for a month and a half, no matter the usage frequency, and it’s not even been a full month yet, so I don’t think the problem lies there.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Could this be because I took a break and my eyes “forgot” them? Wrong fit on the left eye? Or something else?

Any advice would be really appreciated :)