I'm really proud of the way I handled an awkward situation tonight.

Tonight, my ex-boyfriend from high school (go back 35 years) sent me a Facebook friend request. No message, just a request. I paused and reflected on why he would do that:

1. My profile came across his newsfeed of people he knows based on mutual connections

2. He's having marriage problems and reached out to me b/c I'm an easy to reach online distraction

Either way, neither is a good reason to just Facebook friend request me 35 years after he 1) cheated on me with my best friend and 2) didn't apologize for it and shunned me socially afterward telling people I was emotionally needy and not to date me. He was a popular football player too who knew everyone.

So, you can imagine the mix of feelings I had when I saw his Facebook friend request sans message.

I took the high road. I sent him a mesage, telling him bluntly, that I appreciate the friend request but with no message, and 35 years of silence, and the way he treated me from the past, there was no reason for him to reach out to me.

His response made me roll my eyes. He responded that he just suddenly thought of me and wanted to see how I was doing and wished me a Merry Christmas. Never even bothered to address my points in my Facebook message to him. He just completely ignored my points, my boundaries per se with his response. It made him come across arrogant and entitled to me.

Sorry, but if you cheated on me and then gossiped about me to everyone in our highschool class about me, why would you think I would be happy to hear from you 35 years later?

If someone randomly friend requests me on Facebook without bothering to explain why in an accompanying message, I take that as a HUGE red flag. Huge. That's rude, first of all, not to tell me why you want to be my Facebook friend. Do you want to get something from me? Do you want to be friends in real life? What?!

Red flags abound with this guy. No message to accompany his Facebook friend request. Ignored my response to his Facebook friend request and did what he did to me in high school; ignored my feelings and was only concerned about his own feelings and what he could take from me.

Nope. 35 years later, I think I have some boundaries now. I know it sounds silly but I felt empowered to stick up for myself with a lousy high school ex-boyfriend thinking he could just pretend the past didn't happen and message me without any context or explanation and just ignore my response as though it didn't matter.

I actually wrote to him, "I have peace in my life that I plan to protect at all costs. I have no desire to be Facebook friends with you."

I couldn't care less what his real reason was for contacting me on Facebook. Clearly, his intentions weren't transparent or good, for that matter. Who the heck contacts an old ex from high school when he's married with children? Not someone who respects me, thats for sure.

I deserve to be treated with respect. Period.