I know what you are going through!! I worked as a cashier/retail through college, and I felt the same way. Here is how I dealt:

– Everyday, I would tell myself “this is not forever. This is totally temporary. I am not a cashier, I just work as one.”

– Sometimes, I would pretend to be an actress. If I was getting bored, I would try and be really chipper to some people, or if there was something I wanted to work on (maybe like initiating convo, or trying to be assertive) I would practice on customers.

– As for the abuse, use your managers!!! I would always start with an apology on behalf of the store or ask what they would like me to do. When that isn’t good enough, I go straight to “would you like to speak with a manager?” We are not punching bags, and society doesn’t understand how much abuse retail workers go through on a daily. I quit a job once when I got a caller on the phone threaten to find me and kill me for not lowering his payment which was out of my control, and management did not support me. Not worth it!

Good luck!

I think you have a right to feel hurt or upset over her becoming distant. If you were as close as you thought you were, I’m sure you would have expected her to be straight with you instead of just going away. However, I hope you know that you deserve someone who feels the same as you, and who would not put you aside for someone else. And I hope you don’t feel inferior to her for this reason. Life goes on, and I am sure you will meet someone who shares the same values as you. She might feel uncomfortable for the reasons that you stated, and that could be her way of dealing with it. Not saying she is right, but people have different ways of dealing with things, and it seems like she went through some trauma in her past.

To answer your question regarding lies and such – I have A LOT of friends who would rather ignore someone or lie to them before actually confronting them with the truth in order to spare their feelings. I find this to have the opposite affect. It will hurt the other person either way, might as well get it over with as soon as you can, in my opinion. And truth is very important to me. There are a lot of reasons why people lie. They might not want to deal with it, scared to hurt feelings, and they can also be uncomfortable with the reaction they think they might receive with the truth.

I will admit that I have one particular ex that I had to lie to about why I was breaking up with him instead of the truth because he was so mentally unstable, I knew the truth would make him go crazy. All of my other friends or ex’s, I have been completely honest with as to why I no longer wanted to be with them, or even if I just had an issue I wanted to squash.

I will also state that putting a lot of your problems on another person’s shoulders such as sharing that you were depressed and such might come off as something “she” needs to fix, and maybe she could be running from that because she is not equipped for that. Not saying that was your intention, but she could have taken it that way. I have opened up to a few friends before and found they became distant with me and it was never my intention, I just wanted to share! People interpret things differently a lot.

In closing, I want to say that there is SO much beauty in life. Friends/relationships come and go, but please remember this is your time on Earth and there are so many things to explore and learn about. I would urge you to see a therapist if possible to discuss your feelings and issues with. I go to a therapist myself and found it to help a lot. Sometimes when I get too involved in a situation in life, I kinda zoom out and try to see myself from space and realize how little of an issue I’m having, and it helps!

Good luck!

Mine: Never stop dreaming 🙂