What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?

I'm afraid I'll feel like an idiot answering this because, honestly, my life hasn't been that bad. Compare me to people who lived in slavery, or still do today, people who have been tortured or murdered, people who wandered the earth because they did not belong, and you will find that my life has been remarkably easy. I've never wanted for food or felt unsafe, and I've always had an opportunity to educate and better myself. Furthermore, my parents went beyond this to make sure my life was happy; I could have the clothes and technology I wanted, I was given a car and a cell phone, and I was given help with bills throughout college.

So don't expect some intense answer to this question that will leave you startled or shocked.

A few things come to mind: living with a terribly passive aggressive roomate for a year, surviving middle school, trying to find a job, struggling with a WoW addiction, struggling with social anxiety and self-esteem. But honestly, as stupid as this sounds, the hardest thing I've ever had to do is lose someone I care about--and I don't mean passing away, I mean a person who breaks off all ties of friendship and connections.

This has happened three times that I can really recall that left me shattered on the inside. The second was, by far, the worst.  The first was a breakup--after years of being great friends, me and a guy decided to try dating. After three months of emotional whirlwinds, he called off the relationship and, to make the breakup easier, any chance of a friendship. I was devastated, but still holding myself together.

What followed was a summer where I reconnected with an old friend from high school. Though we weren't officially "In a relationship," we were as good as dating from my point of view. Near the end of the summer, he told me that we wouldn't continue anything when I left to college, and what's more, he didn't really see a point in continuing a friendship with me; I wasn't really worth it to him.  This left me crushed. I remember crying at my parent's kitchen table--me, who usually hid all of my personal matters from my parents, crying so deeply that it was beyond sobbing, tears pouring down my face which was held so still that I could barely talk--just feeling so worthless and crushed and empty inside. That same day, a mutual friend of ours got into an argument with me which led to the end of our friendship as well. 
I went back to college broken inside. Leah can attest to some of the nights I spent on her floor trying to find the words to describe what my heart felt like. This was also the year I fell deeply into World of Warcraft, only to resurface 11 months later a different person.

It took me about a year to heal enough to look back on that summer without wincing internally. I realize now, in retrospect, that I wasn't blameless in the situation. I had changed alot that year, and wasn't what he was looking for in a girlfriend. Additionally, I don't think he was being as cruel as I thought in calling off the friendship. Looking back, I think he knew that I'd keep clinging to him unless he cut things cleanly and that I'd need to be hurt to consider it a clean cut. I don't think he realized just how far out of control he would send me. He was the end to a long line of failed relationships and broken friendships, and the final straw that sent me over the edge.

The day that he called off our friendship was the hardest thing I've ever experienced. It was worse than the year of WoW that followed, or the breakups that preceded it.  The entire day was spent in pain and regret and hurt that was so deep that I can't really do it justice through words, though anyone who has been through anything similar will certainly know what I mean.  So, I haven't experienced any severe trauma, pain, damage, or something you would consider a "real" problem. But I've found myself at rock bottom with a broken heart and no idea how to rise back up. It sounds trivial, I know. But it certainly did not feel that way.