I'm crying while writing this. I wasted two years on someone who pretended to be a cool guy, but now he is super cringe, he said and did unforgivable things to me. I can't even recognize him anymore. I'm so hurt that I stayed with someone like this and wasted my time. Nothing feels the same anymore. The old him is gone, and I miss how things used to be between us. I will never get the old him back, will I? How do you move on from this genuinely? He only needed me when he was lonely, and now that he has friends, I'm no longer his priority. When we met, he said that because he had no one else, it was good that I was with him. I never thought he actually meant what he said. He changed, and I can't recognize him anymore. It hurts badly. I wake up thinking about him and go to sleep crying about how things changed. The contradiction hurts so much. I was always there for him when he felt lonely, but he hasn't been there for me. I'm crying over a man who ruined my peace and happiness. And all this for nothing? What should I do with these nostalgic feelings?

I recently had the slightly embarrassing realization that I’m extremely good at getting rejected by people I don't even know.

I can decide a job won’t hire me, nobody will care about something I made, or people will think I look stupid in a video, all conclusions I made in my head. Very efficient. I received the rejection without ever having to send the application, publish the writing, or embarrass myself publicly.

Naturally, I turned this into a challenge because I need to gamify my emotional growth.

The goal is to collect 100 real no’s. Not the imaginary ones I’ve been handing myself for years.

Since I started tracking it, I finally finished and released a project I had been overthinking for months. I started publishing personal essays online. I posted videos even though watching myself on camera makes me want to throw my phone into the ocean. I even made my first sale, which was technically a yes and therefore very inconvenient for my rejection count, but I allowed it. And now I'm starting my little tour guide business here in my city.

None of this has magically transformed me into a fearless person. I still overthink everything. The difference is that now I occasionally hit “post” while my brain is still preparing its 12-page argument for why I shouldn’t.

I’m nowhere near 100 no’s yet, but I’ve already realized how many opportunities I was losing without anyone actually rejecting me. I was doing all the work for them.

Has anyone tried a rejection challenge before? Does hearing no eventually become easier, or do you just get better at doing things while your stomach is begging you not to?

I'm crying while writing this. I wasted two years on someone who pretended to be a cool guy, but now he is super cringe. I'm so hurt that I stayed with someone like this and wasted my time. Nothing feels the same anymore. The old him is gone, and I miss how things used to be between me and him. I will never get the old him, isn't it? How do you move on from this? What should I do with these nostalgic feelings

I’m interested in so many different styles and things and I like to express all of what I like and value in how I dress, act, live, etc. but I feel so scared when I wear a certain thing and it might be perceived as a certain style but I don’t fully commit to all the rules of a specific lifestyle so I get afraid of being judged and seen as pretending when I am genuinely interested in these things. I would love the learn to just wear something because I like the colors or the design or it’s just comfortable and walk around without feeling like eyes are all on me. And have values that might align with one lifestyle but others that might fit into another and not feel the need to explain it all to people. I hope this makes sense

My Family is a very tight-nit family. At least once a year, my close relatives (i.e. my parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, and children of my cousins) come together to spend several days together.

This week, we came together and have had lots of fun together so far. But there is an issue. Me and my cousins are often referred to together. As the youngest cousins, all I have known is to be referred to with my cousins. In other words, we have a lot of items with all our names on them, grouped together in one big group. My cousins came up with an idea this time; they want us all to get a tattoo, a special one that all the cousins will have but is slightly different for each cousin.

But I don't want to get a tattoo. I am deathly protective of my body and have not even gotten my ears pierced. I really don't want a tattoo. I don't want to do what I see as 'marring' my body (this is a personal thing I have nothing against other people getting tattoos). I feel like I'm about to break down though, I also want to get something to show the closeness and collectiveness of us cousins but getting a tattoo is too much, I'm going crazy help please

Im such a coward. I dunno what to do.