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Since leaving school and college I’ve had so many friends come and go. Friendships come and go throughout everyone’s life, but I have definitely found that making friends was never my strong point. I have always been really shy and was always worried about being judged by other people. Once I left school and college, I lost a lot of friends. This was mainly due to the covid lockdown as I had to shield and they just never really understood. Looking back now they actually weren’t very nice friends. Of course, not being in school or college made making friends a lot more difficult. However due to having a social media account for my rescue hamsters during lockdown, it meant I had a few online friends that I really enjoyed talking to. Unfortunately, a lot of them lived too far away so meeting was never possible. After the lockdown I also had quite bad social anxiety and hated talking to people in person. It took me a long time to even want to leave the house and do things other than pop to the shops. Social media has really helped me to gain more confidence in talking to people and it is also something that I really enjoy. When I did initially make friends through my social media channels I was very wary of telling them about my PH in fear they would judge me just like people did in school.
SPRING 2023 emphasis 44