Being a mediator can be somewhat challenging. Not everyone has the nerve to stand in the middle of two warring parties. You could either end up restoring peace or receiving a piece of their mind. Oh yes! 😅 I've literally seen and heard of people getting punched or slapped from trying to resolve other people's conflicts. And I guess that's why some people try as much as possible not to get involved in such situations.
What about me? Am I a mediator or have I ever been one?
Well, to be honest, I'm the “mind my business” type of girl. I don't like having issues with people neither do I like witnessing people having fight issues. To simply put, I'm not a busybody. Regardless, I try to resolve disputes between people whenever I can or as the spirit leads, to say the least.
One of the times I stepped in as a middleman middlewoman was four years ago in highschool. What happened was that two of my classmates who were also my friends had a disagreement which later got physical.
It all started when Lizzy (one of the girls) found out that Juliet (the second girl) had started befriending her crush. Lizzy had a crush on a guy and confided in Juliet. You know how girls can be 🤷. Then, one thing led to another and Juliet got a hold of the guy's contact. It started as a friendly chat until the guy fell in love with Juliet. Now, for the record, the guy wasn't aware of Lizzy's crush on him, so we can't blame the innocent guy.
Where the issue lies is Juliet being aware of her friend's feelings but still going ahead to get close to a guy she liked. It's unfair if you look at it but Julliet denied doing it intentionally. She claimed she was unaware and never led the guy on.
However, Lizzy got mad and felt betrayed. She regretted sharing her secret with Juliet and called her all sort of names including the vulgar word; “whore”. This infuriated Juliet and she fired back, calling Lizzy a “coward” and all.
Before I knew it, the whole altercation turned into slapping, pushing, hair pulling and the rest of that. The funny thing is that everyone was just watching and doing nothing, our class prefect too was even amongst the spectators enjoying the pathetic scene and cheering the girls on.
It really pained me to see both my friends fighting over some guy who wasn't even in the damn school. Fed up with the noise, I got in-between the two girls and attempted to pull them out after dodging an incoming blow from Lizzy 🤣. I held her and tried to calm her down first. Luckily, a teacher came in for lectures so everyone hurriedly returned to their seats and pretended everything was fine. The teacher didn't notice anything but he served as a distraction. Lol, at least the show was over.
After school, I met up with Julliet and talked with her. She told her own side of the story and explained that she didn't mean harm. I tried to pinpoint where she went wrong which is befriending the guy behind Lizzy's back. It made it seem treacherous.
Anyway, I did well to speak calmly and rationally without seeming like I was picking sides. I mean, the last thing I want is having to choose sides between my friends. And after great effort, I finally managed to convince Julliet to apologize to Lizzy for her mistake and she reluctantly agreed.
Later, I met with Lizzy and we got talking. She was still pretty furious so I had to calm her down again. I asked her for the full details and she told me about how it started. I told her that it's not worth fighting for. Seeing as she didn't tell the guy about her feelings and the guy didn't take notice of it either. If he couldn't feel the same way after all these years of friendship it probably meant that he's not into her. Lizzy admitted that she overreacted and felt jealous of Julliet. I convinced her to just let the whole thing slide and she did.
Although it took a few days, the two girls met with each other face to face, apologized and hugged. They finally decided to put their differences aside and continue friendship.
Believe me, it was a little hard for me because I hated getting involved in relationship issues and I didn't know much about it either. However, I'm glad I was able to settle their dispute amicably.
Conclusively, no matter how petty or grave the conflict is, I believe that acting as a mediator is necessary. We could be saving someone's life and future or simply serving as an eyeopener.
This post is in response to the @hive-learners weekly featured topics for week 29 edition 1 on the title; "MIDDLEMAN"
THANKS FOR READING! ❤️