You all must have remembered that one kindergarten friend of yours who used to poop in his pants, right? And by now, you really miss bunking classes, snatching tiffins, playing football in the rain, and sneaking out for pani puri dates with your mates, don’t you?
Well, I’ve had terrible friendships my whole school life. My days at school were dominated by the sensations of being ignored, fooled, back-bitched, and tormented. With every grade that passed on, I barely had one or two friends to have my back and share my feelings with.
I never really cared about them, nor did they cause all we had to focus on in our school life were our grades and extracurriculars. I might not have told this to any of the people I lost because everyone expected me to act a certain way; happy, bubbly, and cheerful, until the day the pandemic started.
There were many, who were the “oho” to my Jine Mera Dil Luteya, vibing with me to Kishore Kumar and KK’s hits, sharing their playlists, and attempting the hook steps of every Bollywood song that I played.
But then came the pandemic, and I really missed it all.
A Virus That Shattered Relationships
Apart from the rise in COVID-19 cases in India, there is another trend that is on the surge. It is the increase in friendship breakups and shattered relationships that we all have been facing for the past 1.5 years.
Whether you agree or not, we must not have had the same bond and willingness to communicate with our mates as we did when things were normal.
Whether it’s the gradual drifting apart of a childhood friend, the abrupt, sharp distancing caused by a dispute, or one of the numerous relationships that have silently broken apart during the pandemic, losing someone you believed would always be in your life is tremendously upsetting.
Honestly speaking, I didn’t give up. I pumped up every single time I felt lonely. I joined meets, attended virtual birthday celebrations, shared memes on Instagram, and sometimes called them. But, this time, it felt different.
Of course, it did since we weren’t present in person. Yet, the entire idea of sharing a bond and connecting with people was completely changed.
As the external world has changed since March 2020, so has our internal world, our relationships, life goals, priorities, and mental health. Although the restrictions were to maintain social distance, the pandemic has restricted us from being “us” and sharing our feelings.
Even if we start telling the other person what we’re feeling, we typically get the impression that the other person isn’t interested in hearing us out, and that’s when we put a stop to our talks.
And it is because of this that we lose hope of having a flawless friend circle and begin to jeopardize our mental health.
Also Read: Breakfast Babble: Why I Wish For Another Lockdown
The Reason We Enjoy Watching These Movies And TV Shows
I myself had a thought sometime back when I was binge-watching Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, as to why I love this movie so much? What is it that most of the youth love to watch it multiple times?
It’s the same old story of a bookish girl falling in love with a Casanova guy. They go for a strangers’ trip, things don’t go as planned at first, but everything finally comes into place.
Having said that, there are undoubtedly some unspoken desires of ours to have these individuals in our life, to go on a Manali vacation, to party with them all night, and to simply enjoy ourselves!
Same accounts with Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, 3 Idiots, and F.R.I.E.N.D.S. We love them and watch them with the same zeal and enthusiasm every single time because we want these instances and people to happen with us in our lives.
And, regrettably, reality check, we’ve no other option rather than to envying them and playing out these fantasies in our heads.
How Important Is Maintaining Your Mental Health After a Friendship Breakup?
Friendships, like any other relationship, aren’t always meant to be — and even when they are, they require a lot of effort to sustain. And if it’s becoming one-sided or effortless from the other side, don’t always blame yourself for being responsible for it.
It might be the circumstances, the time through which we’re passing, and even the other person’s feelings for you that equally contribute to a friendship.
It was hard for me to accept the fact that I’ve really fewer people to count on me but soon I realized that nothing is more important than your mental health. I reintroduced myself to my interests, which included dancing, singing, writing, and much more!
I gave myself time like never before and began doing things I had stopped doing a long time ago. And yeah! The results were unexpected! Acing college, involving in internships, and volunteering in NGOs really added to my “pandemic success stories” and also to my CV.
But, I wondered, does it really matter if you ace these tasks when you have no one to cheer you on and celebrate your successes with? And it was at this moment that I began attending counseling sessions with a really kind psychologist, who helped me get my life back on track and revised the entire aim of living a life.
Losing friendships doesn’t mean you’re not a good friend. You equally stand a chance to deserve better friends in your life. Perhaps God has in mind a sarcastic Bing, a crackhead Joey, a very responsible Monica, a happy-go-lucky Ross, a spoiled yet courageous Rachel, and a pretty Pheebs for you.
Lastly, in King Khan’s voice “Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost…”
Image Credits: Google Images, The Indian Express
Sources: Blogger’s own thoughts and experiences
Find the blogger: @chiinniiiii
This post is tagged under: friends; friendship; friendship day; pandemic; friendship breakups; friendships; relations; relationships; relationship breakups; breakups; long-distance; school; school life; introvert; people; students; virus; COVID-19; lost friendships; mental health; F.R.I.E.N.D.S.; Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara; znmd; ZNMD; Yeh Jawaani hai deewani; yjhd; YJHD; friendship is life; living life in pandemic; shattered relationships; misunderstandings; lockdown friendships; virtual meets
