This is the start of a new weekly advice column in The Slater. Two anonymous students will be answering frequently asked questions relating to typical teen lives. Enjoy!

Tipp Finnigan: I’ve been a super Slater ever since I could crawl. I stay up late into the night doing just about everything from studying for my classes to pondering the very nature of existence. Some may call me a fool, but I say that it is necessary to be a superior student in today’s society. When I’m not hard at work churning out new articles for The Slater, I binge watch Netflix over and over and over again, until I finally pass out in the early morning.

Penelope Nyce: I am a Slater standout and I have had straight A’s all twelve years of my career at Bangor. I do community service and dogs are my favorite. I have one named Papaya and she is the apple of my eye. I have a lot of experience with relationships and I have a very positive outlook on life. My quote to live by is “you cannot stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”

Q: My boyfriend and I just broke up after a year and he is now hanging out with my best friend. I now have lost not only my boyfriend, but my best friend as well. How should I cope?

Look, do us all a favor and don’t make ice cream your new best friend. Seriously, your problem has a relatively easy fix: move on. Impossible? No, not in the slightest. Distressed individuals and philosophers have collaborated for more than a millennia on this question. In fact, it was Aristotle and the Stoics in Ancient Greece that defined this coping period as a test of the mind and further definition of the individual’s character. In general, get back out there and join a new club, play a sport, and meet new people. Life, as contemporary philosopher C.C. Hunter points out, “isn’t supposed to be easy.” Rather, it is these moments in time that test our will power to come back and double down on our goals.

Sincerely,
Tipp Finnigan

That is tough… but clearly, she is not really your best friend if she is doing that to you. Cut off communication with your ex but try to talk things out with your best friend. If she still does not care, let it go, because when it goes wrong between them, she will realize that she should not have put a guy before your friendship. As for you, you were just fine in life before he came into it so you will be okay even though he has left. Find new hobbies, get involved… focus on you! Wipe those tears honey, everything happens for a reason and one day you will look back and be glad it went as it did. Turn off the Taylor Swift, put down the Nicholas Sparks, and think about all that you have to be thankful for.

Sincerely,
Penelope Nyce