She Threw Herself A Birthday Dinner, But Not A Single Person Showed Up To The Restaurant
Imagine throwing yourself a birthday dinner; putting on your favorite outfit, booking a table at a nice restaurant…and then not a single person you invited to celebrate with you shows up or lets you know they’re not going to be able to make it. How would you feel?
I would feel incredibly lonely and let down to be surrounded by empty chairs and a restaurant full of other people having a nice time around me.
This is the story of a woman who planned her own birthday dinner and was met with silence—and what it says about friendship, expectations, and the loneliness no one talks about.
Just five months ago, she made the move to New York City, and she’s struggled with starting fresh in a new place.
She hardly knows anybody in the city, but she’s been doing her best to try to make some friends. She has managed to make some connections through her job, and she’s run into some people at her gym who are nice.
When she planned herself a little birthday celebration, she invited five people she’s recently become friendly with to come to dinner with her in her neighborhood.
“I made a reservation, sent out the invite, even followed up the day before just to check in. Everyone said they were in,” she explained.
“So I showed up, waited…and no one came. Not one person. No text. No “sorry.” Just silence. It was awful, I felt sooooo embarrassed, I wanted to just hide under the table.”
She says her life was like something out of SATC; you know, like that episode where Carrie had a birthday dinner and not a single soul made an appearance.
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Yeah, sadly, that was her real life. She stayed at the table alone for 45 minutes, and then she got a small dish for herself to eat.
She even had to inform her waiter that most likely, her party of six turned into a party of one. She smiled through it all, as she didn’t want to let anyone see how sad she was.
“But it was one of the most humiliating moments of my life,” she added. “The worst part is–I didn’t tell anyone. Not my family. Not my close friends back home.”
“When my coworkers casually asked how the dinner went the next day, I just said, ‘Oh yeah, it was really nice, super chill.'”
“I lied because the truth felt unbearable. I feel like I’m failing at making a life here, and this just confirmed everything I’ve been scared is true: that I’m forgettable, awkward, too much effort to care about.”
What advice do you have for her?
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