When I was a young woman, we all went to gay clubs because they had the best music. Everybody partied together on the dance floor and had a great time. Do your research. Find a gay club with a vibe your friends will appreciate, and invite them to join you there. If you are with a group of people, you can enjoy one another's company
As much as people like to insist otherwise, when you regularly socialize with the same five or more people, not everyone gets along at the same level of camaraderie or intimacy. There are some people you only chat with in the group chat and never hang out with one-on-one, because you may all love each other, but your individual personalities don't mesh - at best, your natural friction emerges in a battle of competing memes on WhatsApp or arguments around who to Venmo.
"During the early days of the group, there was another mom who often wasn't included. I'd picked up on hints of a weird dynamic, but at the time, I didn't dwell on it too much. I was just so happy to have found these incredible, smart, funny women. Now it seemed that this group had a pattern of leaving someone out. And that someone had become me," she claimed.
This entire year has been a struggle for me. I'm a freelancer, and business is down dramatically. I can hardly pay my bills. I rarely talk about it, but the holidays are approaching, and I cannot show up the way I usually do with gifts for everyone. I barely have the cash to get to my hometown to be with the family. The thing is, everyone thinks of me as the successful one, the one who moved to the big city and made it.
I didn't do any research, so the thing that was really surprising was maybe a month later when I realized she was 89 years old and then I was DMing her. But it was a casual back and forth. She's super with it, and we've become very close in a very touching way - in a way that I think reflects something about her relationship with Peter, actually.
He lives with his openly gay male best friend of about 10 years, which is pretty impressive given that we're both in our early 20s. I guess he and his best friend trauma-bonded during high school, and it's made them close. REALLY close. Whenever we go on dates, he keeps his phone on alert to make sure nothing bad happens to his best friend.
It's never too early to learn that while it's good to think compassionately about what's happening to others, ultimately they own their behaviour and you own yours.
Understanding your friendships from a perspective of financial inequality can help to realize that wealth often comes with hidden costs, including emotional stress and personal sacrifice.
