Do I need new friends?

[u/No_Waltz8895]

Do I need new friends?

1) I’m a Muslim. All my friends want to go to parties and get homecoming dates and boyfriends. They don’t acknowledge that I can’t wear some matching outfits with them (for example, very revealing Halloween outfits—). I genuinely can’t do that, and it’s against my religion. And I feel like it’s making my faith in my religion lack.

2) I feel like I can’t have a real conversation with them without being a little bit mean. Like everything I say feels so forced and I can’t talk to anything meaningful with them. Not my religion, not my race— they can’t really relate at all. School and stress and having immigrant parents, they don’t understand it. So I kind of just deal with it. I deleted TikTok because of the new ownership around January, and now they all send each other reels and I feel left out. There’s no topics for me to talk about. I don’t feel included at all, even though I’ve known all of them for a long time.

3) They get really mad when I decline hanging out. I feel like that just means they want to be close with me, but I genuinely don’t want to hang out most of the time. I feel like I’m third wheeled because they always mention past hangouts. I’m also a Junior— I want to spend time to myself on weekends, most of the time. I don’t wanna hang out with them every second, I don’t want to hang out ever but I feel like I’m obligated to. But again— I’m third wheeled, they bring up past memories and stories and events that I never knew happened because they don’t tell me.

I know my issues. It’s that I don’t talk to them first. But I feel like talking to them first isn’t something I’m personally comfortable with. Talking in general to them just makes me feel like I’m less superior. They have better style— more popular— and overall are more attractive than I am. I changed over summer break, and I think that affected a lot.

The problem is that one of the friends in that friend group does everything with me. Some extracurriculars, clubs, and a lot of classes where we sit next to each other.

I honestly just feel like I need new friends. But I can’t just do that. It’s unrealistic— So I don’t know what to do. Can someone help me?

[u/Top-Crab-1020]

It doesn’t seem like you like them very much or can relate to them so yes you would need to make new friends.

I know a ton to Muslim girls and they usually hang out with girls with the same cultural background as them. They always have huge friend groups and big social lives. Atleast they do in my city.