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.