Lesson 16) Look Alive!

...because your roommate is about to kill you.


You've already heard me talk about Erin's roommate who doesn't shower too often. Well, there is more to that story today. Erin had a lot to do today, and (let's call her...) Becca decided she would mess up in several ways.
Just for the sake of the lesson, let's just list them out:

1. Her friends from high school over-stayed their welcome... and slept in Erin's bed
2. Becca put the air-freshner in upside down so the oil spilled over Erin's heir-loom jewelry box
3. Becca called Erin to come jump-start the high school friends' car, and it turned out it wasn't just the battery. This made Erin miss talking to her military-school boyfriend.
4. After leaving food everywhere in the room all the time, Becca asked Erin to get rid of a bowl of soup that had been there for less than an hour.

I would like to tell you that today's lesson is about how to get back at someone who just runs over you. I would also like to tell you that this lesson is also about standing up for your friend, as I would like to do for Erin, and will if this sort of thing goes any further. However, today is about standing up for yourself.

Erin is a strong person in so many ways. If anything goes wrong in your life, she's ready to be there for you and support you through the roughest of times. She has the answer to a lot of life questions, and she's willing to share. 

But she can't stand up to someone that is hurting her. It's her weakness- she absolutely hates confrontation. We have ten weeks left at school, and she has to deal with Becca for all of them. It's not fair to her, but perhaps if she had said something several weeks ago it wouldn't be at this point. On the other hand, some people are darn near impossible to get through to so maybe Becca would still be this bad, we'll never know. Erin deserves better, most people do. She needs to stop Becca in her tracks and list all of the things I have listed for you, and point out that all of that is just in one day! She's worried that it will make things awkward, but I believe it's weird enough having to constantly make up for Becca's short comings in manners. Erin should have said something the first or second time the room became a mess, and she has to say something now. You have to be willing to stand up for your needs, especially if it involves your home. Let's be honest, if you count out the days, we're here at school more often than we're home. This is our second home. If someone is messing with it, we have the right to stand up and say that that's not okay in any way. 

It's more than just your dorm room. This world doesn't allow for push-overs any more. I know it's hard- thankfully I was brought up in a family where being a push-over was never really an option (thank you, brothers who are not only older but got their growth-spurts waaaaaay before me). There is, also, always points for the sweet cute person that doesn't want to fight. But the bad guys, or the obnoxious girls, are always out there and we have to make sure that we aren't scared to tell them that they can just go crawl back under whichever rock they came from! Make sure you never forget that you're worth it and they breath in and out just like you do, they're no one special.

They can dance their jig somewhere else.

Curl Girl, out!