This is How My Friend “Quiet Quit” Our Friendship
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In 2016 I met Clarice. At the time, we were both newlyweds, excited about marriage and what the future had in store for us. We quickly became close friends and chatted often, hung out together, ate, and laughed a whole lot — all the stuff that friends do.
A few years into Clarice’s marriage, she and her husband started to experience some marital problems. At first, I thought it was something that could be easily worked out between the two of them.
At the time, I didn’t think the problems they were experiencing were marriage deal-breakers. More of a lack of communication and failure to understand the other’s perspective, which I thought they could work through if both parties gave the marriage a fighting chance.
It soon became evident that Clarice was increasingly unhappy about the state of affairs in her marriage. She and her husband didn’t seem to agree on anything. There were lots of accusations leveled against each other — amid the other various problems that existed in their marriage.
A year after Clarice had told me about her marital problems, she decided to end things. She made the difficult decision to separate from her husband, with the intention of initiating divorce proceedings down the line.
They had reached an impasse in their relationship and were set on going their separate ways.
Over the course of a few days, Clarice packed up all her stuff and left their house. It all happened so quickly.
Leaving meant that Clarice not only left the house she shared with the man she had called her husband, but she also left the city- where we had met as friends — and moved back in with her parents in another town.
At the time, I didn’t anticipate her move would remotely affect our friendship.
But it did.
Clarice was going through an incredibly hard time with the dissolution of her marriage so I knew I had to be there for her in any way I could.
Even though I couldn’t physically see her as often as I would have liked to because I had a young baby, which made it incredibly difficult to plan spontaneous visits, I still called and messaged her.
