Probably one of the biggest stressors in our lives are dramatic people. Instead of taking the time to clearly communicate and solve a problem, some people just decide to get mad. I’ve found the most effective way to deal with these situations is to be calm and speak in a leveled voice.
Not long ago, a girl that I knew for a while blew up on me for “pressuring” her to dance. I was a bit incredulous. Apparently even though she wasn’t dancing at the time, she had a few other people who asked before me. And she wanted to dance with them first. Ok that was actually kind of considerate. But at the time, all I heard from her was that she needed to find someone. That person wasn’t there. So I persisted, and said something like, “dance with me then.” She declined, walked away, and danced with another fellow instead. I actually thought that was kind of rude, but I got over it and danced with other girls instead.
Later in the evening, as she was leaving, she came up to me & suddenly started screaming, saying that she didn’t appreciate being pressured. It definitely took an effort to keep my anger in check. Instead I just said, “Sorry, but I didn’t realize that you had other people already waiting in queue. I thought that you were avoiding me. Hopefully we can dance again in the future.” Had I said anything else, she probably would have gotten even madder. So I just apologized and moved on.
These days, apparently she’s still holding a grudge against me. I find that amusing. From my association with her before this, I thought she was a sweet person. In her defense, she was probably just having a bad day or something. I’ll still be polite around her. But I won’t ask her to dance any time soon.