Monday, March 08, 2010

No Comment!

Quite a few years ago, I used to be much more vocal than I am now. I know, I know that can be hard to believe for some people but it's true.

In fact, in the past 6 months I have made a real conscious effort to curb many of my comments and keep my inside voice, well, inside. It's not because I don't have opinions or because I think I'm wrong. It's not even because I'm afraid of confrontation (oh wow, so not afraid of confrontation). What it comes down to is it's not worth the effort of trying to explain to anyone my perspective.

After living at Fort Hood for 5 years, it was during the end of our time there that I found out that many people never bothered getting to know me because they had somehow been offended by something I had said at one point or another. It wasn't even me being directly mean to them, it was because they didn't like something I said. And most of the time it was simply because we had a difference of opinion.

This is something I have never been able to understand. Getting offended because you don't agree with their opinion or perspective. While I admit that there have been times when I may not interact with people over differing opinions, it's not a common occurrence. If I choose to cut ties it's usually because the other person can't respect the difference of opinions.

I also know that I have unintentionally offended people by correcting their misinformation. Mostly with the Army. I will not stand by and let bad information go out, not when I know it's wrong. Opinions I'll leave alone, even if I don't agree with you but basic Army information no.

Please, please learn on your own, gather your own experiences. It would be a shame for you to be miserable because of someone else's experience. Oops, got sidetracked.

Anyway, on Saturday I kept all my thoughts and comments to myself...something I've been doing more and more lately.

When we first moved here I thought a lot about the comments people made to me as we were leaving Fort Hood. Especially the ones about those saying they wish they had taken the time to get to know me better. It did bother me for a while but when I realized the type of people they were, it really wasn't a huge loss in my life.

I've decided that I am not going to express my opinions as much, correct bad information..always but share my perspective, not so much. I figure everyone has to learn on their own and it's not worth the effort to try to help them out.

Like my mom always said...they can learn the hard way...

5 comments:

John, Heather, Emma, Lily & Jana said...

Common on! I don't think you are opinionated at all! ;-)

Christy said...

I'm rather opinionated and it's definitely a struggle on when to say something and when not to. I too correct misinformation concerning the Army and if I know someone's biblically incorrect (I make sure before I say anything and find the answer in the bible to make sure I'm not the incorrect one!!). I've not had the same situation as you over all, but you're right...if the others chose not to get to know you because of a difference of opinion, that's their loss. They couldn't see beyond themselves to find out if they actually wanted to get to know you better or not and that speaks volumes about them imo!

USMCWIFE said...

We are on the same page.

USMCWIFE said...

Nice...ya we are on the same page here.

USMCWIFE said...

Nice...ya we are on the same page here.