AIO Has my roommate/friend crossed a boundary or am I playing the victim mentally?

👥 friendship

For a whole year and a half, i've been volunteering 10H per week at an eldery house in exchange of food and home. It's the first time that this particular retirement home adopted this project to fight against the eldery loneliness and to help young people with housing. My roommate is exceptionnal at that job, she had many good ideas for them (Nails, free clothes thrifting, useful crafting, boardgames and all).

We live together with our own room but shared a kitchen and living room. When I came here, she already lived 6 months here. Her contract ended last July. We ended up being good friends.

The thing is...i don't know if i'm just being weak emotionally? When it comes to anything that isn't volunteering, she's the most supporting friend I ever had. Compared to her, I wasn't making as much impact. I was mainly doing crafting and boardgames because art is my speciality.

Before her contract ended, she told me that she wanted me to be more...exceptional? She didn't want to leave a huge hole gap which I can't fullfill. Every time we went to the cafeteria, she would tell me ''Lol nobody noticed you...'' or ''Why can't you come with a cool idea???''. She then proceeded to tell me that she made so much efforts so that the people after her wouldn't struggle as much and that the direction put pressure on her but not me..and that it wasn't fair that I didn't move my ass to come with creative activities. She wanted me to socialize with more residents because I'd see the same people every week.

At that time, I was stressed at both school, a personal situation with my parents and her pressure. So i forced myself to play skipbo with a group who would only play that game every night. The next day, she sat in front of me and stared with a mean look. She then ignored me the whole night until the morning. She told me that she doesn't hold grudge but it was such an jerk move of me to steal her nightly usual activity. I told her that it was because it was one of the only way to know that particular group of peoole and she told me that I could have chosen to do anything but that.

The thing is that I prioritize school. I did the most that I could while having 1H of transport and visiting my parents/bf when I could. Dental hygiene school is tough already. I still did at least met my contract requirements...anyways, she sighed and told me that it wasn't a good excuse at all and that she's also studying at an online university as a financial planner. Anyways, I still came with an idea and then she moved out.

We kept contact everyday and like I said, when it doesn't come to volunteering (or even a job i guess), she's the most supportive friend I ever had. She helped me go through a lot of situations with good advices and we would have fun together. However this whole situation did make me have some doubts...maybe I was doing the volunteering poorly :/? I feel so bad and confused. I did try to talk her about it but she said that it's caused in the contract, it says that i have to make VARIOUS activities and entertain enough or else i'd be kicked out, and that i'm too lucky that nobody is watching me. She said it was for my good and she only wanted me to make an impact.

Anyways she did came to visit after her departyre. The first time, she told me that some ladies told her that they never saw me. The second time, she told me that she was happy to see that I did have my place within the eldery house but still, I didn't need to be here. The third time, she told me that the ladies who said that they never saw me did lie.

Posted May 11, 2025, 12:42 AM UTC · locked

32
Loading comments…