Saturday, November 19, 2016

"Dear Ellen, my bf just got engaged to someone else..."

Dear Ellen,


I'm in college, and I've been dating my classmate A for six months. We can't tell his family, because they want him to marry B. They think we're just friends.

Last weekend they told me they've set a wedding date for next year. They invited me to the engagement party!

I'm crushed. A says he loves me but B is from a rich family they do business with so he can't say no. What do I do? 



Dear Crushed,

I read this and thought, oh my gosh what have you gotten yourself in to?

Good men value and respect women. A hides you as if you're a dirty little secret.

A also plans to exploit another young woman for her family connections and money. The term for that is gold digger.

Good people are honest with the world. A shows one face to the world and another to you. From your letter he's pretending that this is all happening out of his control. What rubbish! 

He has known he is going to commit to this other girl for some time now. Do you have any idea how many lies he must have told to his family and to that poor girl and her family for them to agree to the engagement?

Forget A. He's not worth your time. Exit now.

Exit sign


You're a talented young woman, about to get a degree and embark on a successful career. You have a lot to be proud of. You should be with a man who is proud of you, too. One who is excited to be with you and who sees your happiness as important as his own. Someone honest and decent.

I'm concerned about the reasons you fell into this relationship. There are loads of good men who'd thank their lucky stars to be with you, so why did you go for a horror like A?

I'm going to make a stab in the dark and suggest you suffer from low self esteem. If so, you need to find out what caused this and work to correct it. 

Your college counsellor will help you with this. Invest in six to eight sessions working out what went wrong, and set about making sure you don't fall in the same trap again. Therapy in college is free, so take advantage.

Also, I suggest that you spend your final months at college studying hard and playing hard. Go on lots of different dates but don't go steady with anyone. You're too vulnerable at present and I'm worried you'll fall for another A.

Finally, if you have an open relationship with your parents, you might also talk to your mum and dad about this. Your parents will have seen lots of people making this and other mistakes and leaning on them for support might be helpful. If you're not sure how they'd take it, talk it through with the counsellor.

Good luck, and I hope to hear very soon that you've graduated and are happy again.

This is part of the free agony aunt service for November 2016. Do write in!