Introduction: Are You a Background Friend?

Are you the "forgotten friend?" Always on the sidelines, looking in? Alone in a crowd? Maybe you feel like your entire social life is built on convenience, and worry whether anyone genuinely cares about you. Or maybe you wonder if you'd have any social life at all if it weren't for the person you were dating. Wherever you fall on the spectrum of "background friendship," this collection of personal essays is for you.