Throughout the past couple of weeks, I have been dealing with some things that have allowed me to better understand why communication is key, not only in romantic relationships but also in friendships. Many times not communicating can leave tension among friends or significant others since the other person or people do not necessarily know how you’re feeling about whatever the situation may be. Sometimes people may not like communication since they don’t necessarily like people being 100% honest with them, but I, on the other hand, prefer it since it allows me to grow as a person.
Initially, I was dealing with some issues with my friends and their time management skills. It was really frustrating that we would plan to hang out at a specific time and they always managed to be late by half an hour or more. I understood that we all had different commitments when it came to school, work, and extracurriculars but that did not mean it was okay to be late for everything we had planned especially when it was planned ahead of time.
After communicating my feelings to them, they began to work on their time management and tried being on time for most things. Although there were some hiccups, I knew they were trying their best since I had previously explained to them that if felt inconsiderate that they were always late.
Additionally, with my boyfriend, we try to have good communication between the two of us since we are in a long-distance relationship. We don’t necessarily see each other very often since the commute is tough and we both go to school full-time as well as have jobs. Being able to have good communication allows us to spend more time together whenever possible and let each other know about different things we have on our minds that might be stressing us out about the other person.
I know a couple of weeks back, I was stressed at the fact that it tended to be mostly me making plans to spend time with one another. After talking to him about it we were able to figure out that although that does happen sometimes, it’s not just me saying I would like to spend time with him and that I had been overthinking most of the situation. It allowed both of us to get out feelings as well as understand how the other person was feeling about the citation.
Despite these two being my examples of why communication is important, there are various other reasons. Many times it’s just so people know why you’re upset with them and know your side of it rather than there just being tension between the two parties. Hopefully, you are able to communicate with your friends or your partner about what’s going on so you can be less stressed and feel better about not keeping your feelings/thoughts to yourself.