I Have A Friend That Teases Me A Lot And I Feel Totally Insecure About it? Am I Being Oversensitive?

I have a story for you that happened to me a few years ago.

I have a very close friend who spent most of her adult life as a middle school French teacher. After one of her older cousins passed away she wanted another pen pal – so I set her up with my mom who loves to write and who had recently lost her second husband.

Well, my mother’s handwriting is pretty hard to read, but sadly mine is even worse. So, one day we are chatting on the phone – and my friend is making fun of my illegible handwriting. Well, I just told her that it may be funny to her, but is a very infuriating issue in my life and always has been so to knock it off. She apologized and it never happened again.

For me, taking notes or writing cards that are legible is very hard. It doesn’t matter how hard I work on making the letters readable if I am tired or whatever, even I can’t read it and that causes frustrations later when I need to take the notes to write a paper. I can’t tell you how glad I am for the computer and my i-pad which I brought to every seminar or lecture I ever went to, able to type fast enough to keep up with even the fastest talkers. Good to know I have a useful skill for the use of writing.

In any case, you get the idea. Sometimes people think they are being funny, and aren’t that thoughtful about how it may land on the other person. Other times, people can just be cruel. It’s up to you to state your truth – not in a defensive way, just in a “I didn’t really appreciate that comment of yours because it made me feel ___. Please, be more mindful in the future. Thanks.

If the person is unable to respect your boundaries, it is time to find a more respectful friend.