A letter from Jan 15, 2025

Dear FutureMe, Now I am a 14 years old girl in 8th grade, I worry every day about my relationships with friends and how to get along with my family. Compared to academics, I care more about interpersonal relationships. Figuring out how to interact with others and how not to be disliked has become an invisible pressure for me. Sometimes, getting along with my family also makes me feel exhausted. Back in elementary school, I never shared anything that happened to me with my family. I valued my friends highly, believing they were the ones who would genuinely care about me and think sincerely for my sake. However, after entering middle school, I realized that wasn’t the case. I found that very few people truly care about you, and the ones who genuinely do are actually your family. So, I started gradually sharing the details of my daily life with them. When I face difficulties, I sometimes seek their advice. But there are moments when they also make me feel pressured. Even though I try my best to fulfill their expectations, they seem to only focus on my shortcomings and frequently criticize me, which leaves me feeling very tired. Regarding the problems I’m facing now, I just want to do my best not to think about them. I don’t know how to solve these issues. Caring so much about how others perceive me makes me feel exhausted, yet I can’t avoid it. I hope that in the future, I’ll have the ability to face and resolve these problems, rather than just running away from them like I do now.