Conflict

So this one time...

01/21/2015

So this one time I had an apartment in ReƱaca, Chile that I shared with two guys. We got along pretty well. We all wanted to do our best at our work and produce great things. Until one of the guys started bringing his girlfriend around. She was super sweet and an overall great person. However, she would stay for up to a week at a time and leave dishes everywhere. Everyday I would come home from the coworking space I was using to an apartment that was dirty.

It was incredibly frustrating at first. I felt like I couldn't come home and be comfortable in my own home because there was this person that would leave it messy all the time. The more I examined my feelings and the situation, the more I realized she was not really at fault. She didn't know it frustrated me. She wasn't doing it to spite me or hurt me.

We ended up having a house meeting and letting our friend know that we had no problem with her staying with us but we needed to establish some rules. We agreed on a set of guidelines that we were all happy with and continued living together happily until I left to come back to the united states. What I really gained from this experience was there is no reason to keep a frustration bottled up. It will only build without solving the issue. The best course of action is to always address it in a constructive and friendly manner. That is the only way to be certain it will have the best outcome.