It’s so strange how, as the time goes by, I learn more and more about my co-workers and their dramatic little lives. I feel rather privleged that I’m considered trustworthy enough to become privy to their lives. Then again, I also know that they know as well as I do that we’re not really friends, and we’ll never really be friends. We’re just people who are stuck together for a few hours a day and we better try to make conversation and get along or we’ll turn those hours into hell. But now, onto some of the dramas!
A. lives with her husband and her twenty month-old daughter in a small apartment with her mother-in-law. She is the mother-in-law from hell, the real classic kind, and A’s life is a misery. She’s trying to raise money to be able to move out of their already, and she seems to be blossoming in her job, having something of her own for the first time in years.
I. was religious. She met a boy, fell in love, and slept with him. She had iregularities with her period after that, and fainted from loss of blood. She was hospitalized and through this her mother learned somehow that I. lost her virginty. I. was then shunned completely, and at twenty, she already lives alone and completely supports herself out of necessity.
Last but not least, we have S. who is in love with a man who probably won’t be able to ever give her what she wants, which is commitment. At her birthday party a few days ago, her friends surprised her by bringing him, after they hadn’t seen each other for months. They slept together, and then she realized he’s the same as he always was, cannot commit and doesn’t realize that he’s with someone who’s willing to give her all. And so, mere days after her hope was egnited, it was cruely extinguished again.
Slightly Ignorant 
Well now, there are a few uplifting tidbits! ;^) It seems little wonder that you’re not completely and irreversibly toxic by association.
A’s certianly doing the right thing, focusing on what needs to be done to get the hell out . . .
I is in a bad way, and in my opinion (from the other shore no less)she’s getting an abrasivley raw deal. Where’s the support. Where’s the love for family. I know culture differences often run perpendicular, but geez . . .
s apparently stands for ‘screwed’, ‘stupid’, or perhaps ‘slipshod’. It’s bad enough going through one heartbreak, and with friends like hers to assist in a second–who needs enemies?
Cordially,
J.W. Nicklaus
You’ve grasped the situation quite right. I believe the only reason I haven’t turned toxic yet is that I haven’t let myself get all too involved. Either that or I’m just an intoxicateable [I just made that word up] fresh breeze of spring :P.
In life we have few Real friends and the rest are just acquaintances.
It is good to be able to watch these mini dramas and how they unfold, because it helps us learn from other peoples mistakes and experiences.
A. Clearly has a goal in life and is willing to do her best to reach it (i hope her husband is working as hard….)
i, has had it tough and it is so unfair that religion can be so cruel. She is better off without them if they feel that way. I hope she finds a special friend who can support her emotionally.
S, is foolish yes, but sometimes it takes a few rounds to finally accept that it just isn’t going to work. Maybe her friends were just as hopeful as she was. Lets just hope she moves on an finds someone deserves her instead of going another round with this player.
People talk into confidence, though they could regret it very soon. But confidence is a good thing to break walls of certainty. It is a shy manner to bring intimacy between people. Yet, as you say, it does not lead to friendship, in every way.
Mae