Dear Devil’s Advocate,
I’m having a problem with one person in my circle of friends. I learned from another friend of mine that she talks behind my back. I have never confronted her about it because I wasn’t sure if she was really doing it, but I actually overheard her the other day when she was talking to a couple of my other friends, who she doesn’t even know well. She played it off and said she was joking, but she didn’t sound like she was. How can I confront her about this without making it sound like “he said/she said?”
-Subject of Trash Talk
Dear Subject,
Uh, hello, I thought we checked the high-school drama at the door when we entered college. How Regina George of her. Is she also the queen bee of your group as well? Obviously this girl has some personal issues of her own and she gets satisfaction from talking rubbish about you. You’re adults now and should be able to handle these types of issues maturely. But apparently she’s still stuck in high-school mode and has nothing better to do than worry about what you’re doing.
End your friendship (or lack there of) because it just adds useless stress to your life. The whole purpose of being friends with someone is to enjoy their company. Unless you like feeling like the lowliest being of the earth; then by all means, keep her as a friend. But seriously, people like that aren’t worth your time and effort. Don’t pay attention to the things she says, since you know it’s not true. Eventually she’ll get bored of it, and maybe with that extra time, she can work on fixing herself.
Dear Devil’s Advocate,
My roommate and I decided to pitch in money to buy a car. The problem is that my roommate is irresponsible with the car. He doesn’t fill up the gas tank, he’ll leave his papers from class lying all over the place and leaves wrappers from food he eats sprawled all over the place and it begins to smell. It’s disgusting; and I’m not saying I’m the neatest person in the world, but he could at least be considerate and dispose of his garbage. I’ve told him I have a problem with it, but he doesn’t seem to get how much it bothers me. What should I do?
-Auto Dilemma
Dear Auto,
My suggestion is that you should zoom, zoom, zoom on out of there with your car. I agree, it is irresponsible for him to leave the car like a pig pen, but you’re lucky gas prices are going down. Still, it doesn’t make it right. You both made a commitment when you bought the car and you should both do your part.
First off, if you are paying for the gas by yourself, that should stop now. He should be paying Uncle Sam and should be cleaning up after himself. Who would want to be your passengers in that dump is what I want to know. If you threaten him, saying he can’t have the car, then he’ll protest and say he’s part owner; but he needs to value your wishes as well. Otherwise you’re better off buying your own vehicle. I’m sure he’ll get tired of the smell of a decaying body in the backseat after a while. Unless he is what is causing the smell…
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