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Joe90
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27 May 2015, 1:03 pm

I have a cousin a little bit younger that me who has this brilliant skill for making friends. She's never been overly extraverted, just inbetween really. So she must be a good actor then. She is prone to panic attacks, and has been in situations where she's felt socially awkward, but she can't be that bad if she can make friends quicker than lightening.

All she's got to do is meet a friend of a friend, and within seconds she's formed a close social relationship and is already invited to a social event or even gets asked to sleep at their house.

She didn't go to my school, but somehow she knows loads of people who did, while I'm just a distant memory of theirs.
I've been with her at social events before and she's not a really loud, life and soul of the group person. She can even be a bit aloof at times, and doesn't even share many interests with them. But people are always ringing her, texting her, wanting her to hang out, and lots of boys fancy her even though she's a lesbian and has a girlfriend.

Sometimes I do get a little bit depressed and jealous too. I have acquaintances and I'm rather likeable, but I could not make friends as quick and easy as she does if my life depended on it. I've read up on social skills but I just read each bit and think "but I do that anyway".

Do you know anyone similar to my cousin? Does it make you feel fed up with yourself sometimes? Thankfully I know loads of NTs that aren't as socially skilled as my cousin.


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alex
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27 May 2015, 1:15 pm

The saying "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" is actually accurate. We frequently look at other people and wish we were them but that's human nature. Even though you can point out reasons you think she has it better, I bet you she feels the same about other people too. So there's no point in always trying to compare yourself to others.


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JeanMiervaldis
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27 May 2015, 1:34 pm

I also have a cousin who I admire and kind a jealous of. Hell, I have 18 cousins! So it's ovbious there is always someone who are better than me at something. And that specific cousin is same age as me and better at everything that I really care about.
But the thing is, everyone is better at something. And It doesn't bother me, because there are a lot of people out there. And I assume you wouldn't jealous of every other people who are better than you like that. So the reason we are jealous of our friends and cousins, because they are close to us. That's it. We are compare ourselves to the people next to us. And thinking about that, I think it's kinda silly. You rather compare yourself with everyone or never! Because there's no limit to the jealousy. I know sometimes people around you make you question yourself. I get it. but we gotta stop.



Joe90
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27 May 2015, 2:48 pm

Alex is right, I do have a bad habit of thinking the grass is greener on the other side, in most situations. When I was at college I really wanted to leave and just have a job, I thought working would be better than being in education. Now I wish I had stayed on at college while I was under 21 when it was still free, and got better qualifications. But what's done is done, but anyway that is not the main matter of this thread.

At times like this, when I'm thinking too deeply about things I can't do a lot about, I try to soothe myself with 2 expressions: "That's the way the cookie crumbles", meaning that things are the way they are, and "anything only matters if you care", meaning whether something is good or bad, it only matters to you if you care. That might sound harsh in some cases but when you look at it that way in this situation, it's actually a meaningful attitude.


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