My Relationship with Conflict

James Armstrong

HCOM 214

Professor Blake Rodgers

3/4/15

My Feelings Towards Conflict

With regards to my own experiences I have personally witnessed the majority of the conflict suffuse both the worlds of school and family. On that note, Conflict for me usually elicits a sour feeling. I would rather avoid it if possible and have the issue disappear. Therefore I personally choose to usually apply the avoidance tactic when possible as I would rather avoid the issue at large and see if I am able to "sweep it under the rug" so to speak.

For example, when I was a freshmen in high school I would routinely cut class and this engendered a conflict with the administration. This was attended by several notifications stating that they would take punitive measures against me. With my younger frame of mind, I opted to avoid the whole issue and to just avoid school and thereby avoid the conflict at hand.  I found myself routinely staying home and in this instance at least I only served to exacerbate the issue as I progressively accumulated more and more cuts which subsequently caused me to rue the idea of returning to school.

Avoidance, in this case at least, proved to be less than ideal as it only exacerbated my dilemma and in the end I was forced to compensate for my cut classes with community service around the school. It was less than ideal and I found myself feeling frustrated and disappointed in myself for not engaging the dilemma head on and addressing it in its infancy instead of later on.\

Another tactic I routinely utilize is that of engaging and perhaps searching for a compromise in order to allay any negative or inimical feelings.  For example whenever I have any petty squabbles with my sister whether it be about cleaning around the house or obligations I tend to gravitate towards a compromise and seek to find a solution that mutually benefits both of us.

All in all, conflict is something I definitely do not relish. Yet when confronted with it I believe that a solution can almost always be reached and that discourse will usually yield said solution. As long as all parties involved are reasonable and capable of looking past any negative feelings in order to reach a mutually beneficial solution.