Friendship Is Always Emotional Labor

The strongest relationships are the ones that recognize that

Rebecca Renner
Forge
Published in
6 min readNov 27, 2019

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Closeup on two people’s hands, one person’s holding the others’.
Photo: LaylaBird/E+/Getty Images

“Do you have a second to listen to me vent?” I recently texted my friend Nikki.

It’s a text I’ve sent many, many times before. Nikki, who I’ve known since we were both in graduate school together, is my go-to for messages like those. She’s always there for me, ready to listen…

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Rebecca Renner
Forge
Writer for

Journalist and fiction writer. Bylines: the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Paris Review, Tin House, The Guardian, National Geographic, etc.