Jeez, just reading this woman’s story made me exhausted…

And I think you’ll probably have the same reaction if you’re the kind of person who needs their alone time to decompress.

Everyone is wired differently, but I’d say that most folks out there want at least a teeny, tiny bit of free time alone so they can at least take a breath.

The nursing student who wrote the story below is all caught up in a group of fellow students who like do to everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, together.

To me, it sounds like a complete nightmare…so I respect her decision to do what she’s gotta do to keep her sanity.

Check out what she had to say and see where you land on this issue.

AITA for not wanting to be around my classmates during my lunch break?

“I am in medical school for nursing, and am fairly popular amongst my classmates.

In addition, we are constantly doing teamwork with one another for the course whether it’s to prep for exams or helping patients with their care plan, such as emotional support or physical help (we are certified CNAs and are allowed to use it to gain clinical hours in hospitals).

Seeing ANYONE too much can lead to burnout…

Long story short, these are people I spend about 12 hours a day with 5 days a week, sometimes more on weekends if they are texting in the group chat, questions about the material (many of them are struggling and I have an A, so I get spammed to help often).

I feel drained, I am naturally an introvert but essentially trained myself to be an extrovert for the sake of my career. They always want to have lunch, dinner and sometimes breakfast together to “decompress” and chat about other things then what we read in a textbook.

And seeing a group of people this much sounds like a nightmare!

I know to most people this would seem very nice, but I just want a few minutes alone. It’s not been perceived well by most in the past and seems anti-social to many but I feel so overwhelmed by being with people and socializing continuously for so long…

I go out for lunch and even just drive across the street to be at peace because being in my car at the parking lot has had some of them knock on my window asking “what’s up” and start a conversation I can’t get out of.

These people sound like a real pain in the you-know-what.

But lately while driving away had helped before, with exams getting to midterms, they have been begging me to stay during our lunch break with them to run through material together and not gonna lie, it doesn’t help me at all because its things I already know that they ask.

I have even started coming to school/clinicals 30-45 minutes early just to sit in my car with a coffee and mentally prepare for the day of never-ending socialization. I want some space, I need some space but I feel like a jerk for not helping them or wanting to be away from people i do consider friends and don’t want to be in bad terms with any of them.

Boundaries are healthy, people!

How can you say “I don’t want to be around you for like an hour” without sounding like a jerk.

One of them actually did find me in my car during my 30 minutes before class and now that got ruined to so I started showing up 10 minutes before just so I can park and make it to the room… it made me so upset.

I don’t exactly know what I want from this post, validation maybe for being okay to feel this way?

Advice?

I don’t know but I do feel more free just saying this out loud even just into the abyss of the internet.”

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who was stunned when her friends finally admitted the reason for their falling out.

Reddit users spoke up.

This person had a lot to say.

Another reader shared their thoughts.

This individual spoke up.

Another individual said they’re NTA.

And this person weighed in.

Was I right about getting exhausted just reading that, or what?

Yikes!

Full disclosure: I used to eat lunch in my car at a former office job so I wouldn’t have to make small talk with my co-workers.

Did they think I was weird? Yes.

Did I care? No!

That was my special time to help me get through the rest of the day!

It sounds like her fellow students are dragging her down and she needs to get away from them as much as possible!