In every person’s life, many minor and serious challenges require decisive solutions. However, people often tend to act impulsively and do not always make the right decisions. With more experience, it becomes obvious that there were other ways to resolve the issue. In this essay, I will write about two problems that I encountered earlier in my life. I will describe how I solved them and explain what other techniques could have been used to approach these situations.
The first problem I would like to describe is connected to my relationships with my parents. Once, I became especially close to a group of my classmates. I enjoyed spending time with them; however, they did not pay a lot of attention to studying and regularly missed classes. As my performance at school also became worse, my parents did not approve of our friendship and claimed that my new friends negatively influenced me. The solution I found was to introduce my friends to my parents to prove that even though they were not very diligent at school, they were good and friendly people. As a result, my parents’ attitude towards my friends improved; however, I was still disappointed that they did not fully trust me.
Today, I can say that a compromise could have been a better technique for solving the described problem. Menkel-Meadow et al. (2020) define compromising as a strategy of “finding middle ground and using some empathy and creativity” (p. 180). From my parents’ side, it would have been fair to give me the freedom to choose friends. At the same time, my good performance at school could have been the most evident sign that my new friends did not affect my studies and well-being. Moreover, I did not empathize with my parents and did not understand that they cared about me. Therefore, I consider open communication, mutual trust, and negotiation the most effective methods of resolving such problems.
Friendship is another sphere of life, where it is important to make the right choice. Sometimes, it is difficult to predict how friends would react in a specific situation. In middle school, I faced a problem with my best friend when I could not be present at his birthday party. I was interested in sports and wanted to attend the skiing competition, which was held at the same time. Being afraid that my friend would be offended, I lied to him and said that I caught a cold. However, I accidentally met him when I was going to the competition with all the skiing equipment. My friend was understanding about my dilemma, although I noticed that my lying made us more distant.
Even though we managed to maintain our friendship, I still regret undermining the trust between my friend and me. Today, I think that the best solution to this problem was to tell my friend about how important this competition was to me. According to Vesely (2019), honesty is considered one of the key traits of a real friend, together with compassion, hospitality, and humility, among others. In friendship, it is essential to speak openly and try to understand each other’s views (Vesely, 2019). Moreover, according to Vesely (2019), breach of trust is a problem that is especially difficult to overcome. Today, I am sure that my friend would have supported me in my goals, and being honest with him would have been the best decision.
To conclude, challenges and problems are natural elements of everyday life. Sometimes, the lack of experience and knowledge does not allow resolving difficult situations in the desired way. However, careful consideration of actions and learning through mistakes can help avoid similar problems. The situations described in this essay prove that it is essential, to be honest, and emphatic with other people, accept different opinions, negotiate, and speak openly.
References
Menkel-Meadow, C., Schneider, A.K., & Love, L.P. (2020). Negotiation: processes for problem solving. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
Vesely, P. (2019). Friendship and virtue ethics in the book of Job. Cambridge University Press.