First I'd like to state I won't be mentioning names, unless it's someone you guys don't know. Also, that this thread isn't directed at anyone.
Here's what I'm getting at:
When you're talking to someone, or debating with someone, or trying to prove a point, do you know when you've gone too far? Also, before you answer that question, think about the fact that you could be jeopardizing a friendship with the person that you're pushing, whether you know them well or not. Or does that not even matter to you? That's another. Do you even care?
Now to explain why I'm asking, so y'all don't think I'm just pulling this out of no where.
Today in Advisory, 4th period, my friend Brandon's face nearly met my fist. Usually, I'm not a violent person, unless it's just a playful thwack, or picking on you. (Chris, and Luci, you should know that one.) But that's how bad he pissed me off. First period, English, I repeated a joke that a close friend had told me over the weekend, of all things it was a blonde joke. Now, I have nothing against blondes, hell half my family is blonde, and one of my best friend's is too. Katie, Steve, and Megan all found the joke hysterically funny. Brandon had his headphones on and couldn't hear. So when I repeated it to Steve and Tristan again in fourth period, Brandon finally caught wind of the joke. Chuckling, he turned to repeat it to our teacher.
I'll state now that the joke was far from being school appropriate, that being the main reason why I said it when the teacher was at her desk, and not sitting around the table with the rest of the class. When she did sit down, Brandon asked her if she wanted to hear it. Before she could reply, I looked at him, said calmly, and politely, "Brandon, please don't even do that. Besides, if I had wanted her to hear it, I would've said it when she was over here." What did he do? He turned away from me, completely ignored me, and asked her again if she wanted to hear it. At that point he was pushing my buttons. With him it's like you have to yell loud enough, and get pissed of enough before he'll hear you. So that's what I did, I yelled at him, in the middle of class. I didn't care. The yelling and fighting resulted in the teacher breaking us two apart, and we spent 15 minutes as a class discussing what happened.
It narrowed down to the fact that Brandon utterly disrespected me by trying to repeat the joke to her in the beginning. Our teacher also stated that she indeed didn't care to hear it. Especially after I stated that it wasn't school appropriate. He kept arguing by saying, "Well if it's school inappropriate, why say it? And I did nothing wrong by trying to repeat it." That's when I snapped and proved my point right there. Replied with, "It may be school inappropriate, but I damn well know that all of us in this class is old enough to handle something like that. It was also before the bell to signal that class has started, rang, therefore it wasn't disrupting class, and Mrs. G wasn't present. But the fact remains, I asked you as a friend not to repeat something, you ignored me and attempted to do it anyways."
Later on in the discussion someone brought up the fact about trust, and how Brandon pulling that little stunt made them lose trust in him. I didn't quite catch onto that until a few moments later. But in the mean time, Brandon stated that following, "But anyone that really knows me, knows that they can trust me to keep things that are really important to myself." So I glanced up at him and threw this in his face, "Really? Because I know you pretty damn well, yet here it is something that's considered a minor thing and you can't even keep that to yourself when I specifically asked you to. How the hell am I ever suppose to trust you with something bigger than that?" All 7 students agreed with me, and there were 2 others that didn't care and just thought it was dumb to argue over such a thing.
To say the least, Brandon couldn't even look at me the rest of the day. He's transferring schools next semester which starts next Tuesday, and at this point, I can't really say I'll miss him. He knows no matter how minor, or major, he betrayed me.
I know that a few, if not many of you may've found that ignorant to argue over such a small thing, but it was indeed a matter of trust, and trust
is not taken lightly with me. You betray me, or lie to me once, no matter how small or big it is, you automatically loose a great deal of respect from me, and you lose a great deal of trust. Both things that are hard to earn back.
But really, other than turning things violent, or ignoring them, what would've any of you done? Do any of you see my point? Because Brandon's a type of person that always has to argue, and always has to be right, there's no way around it. When he's proven wrong like he was today, he walks away like a puppy dog with his tail between his legs.
I'll proudly admit, I'm a very argumentative person. I enjoy being right. But the difference is with me, I have the dignity and the ability to be able to admit when I'm wrong. If you can prove me wrong, so be it. But until I have that proof, I'll go on believing I'm correct.
But still, my questions remain. Do you know when you've gone too far? Does it matter to you? Do you even care? And what would you've done in my situation?
Go.
(just to state, I'm posting this at SSD too, but just 'cause I want to get a lot of opinions on this. But I'm posting it here first just because you guys have first rule.
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Last Edit: Jan 23, 2007 1:17:39 GMT by Kay