Edita Bardhi

Opinion Editor

Each day, different types of relationships are built and maintained.

Relationships amongst family, partners, friends, neighbors, bosses, co-workers and more are all foreseen in this huge crowd we call society.

However, every day people are judging and criticizing their very own peers about the relationships in their life.

That’s society. We develop strong relationships with family, friends and peers and the moment someone outside of the relationships hears of something, numerous assumptions are made.

These assumptions can vary from violence and hatred to love and care.

That is the problem.

People are too quick to judge others based off one factor and it is truly irritating.

Irritated does not even begin to describe how I feel when people judge, criticize, gossip and more on people and their relationships toward others.

Personally, I have experienced many cases where people have misjudged my position in a relationship, let alone me as a person.

For instance, I would be surrounded by people and come across a moment where I would have to discipline a family member or a friend.

During these times, the people outside of the relationship would speak back to me, saying that I should not speak that way to whomever.

Yet, did they really know the situation?

Were they there to witness everything?

Did they know the status of the relationship?

Typically, the answer to these questions would be no, and I would be viewed as the bad guy in these situations.

However, most times I am not.

I am simply standing up for myself and not allowing someone to mistreat me.

Moreover, people judge the smallest things about a relationship.

For instance, if they see two people together, particularly a guy and a girl, they become suspicious.

Their curiosity only increases when the two people are seen frequently together.

Most times, they are assumed to be a couple. Let me repeat myself.

A guy and a girl together. Somehow, two people of the opposite sex cannot be friends, let alone close friends. Even more, they cannot be close friends who never develop feelings for each other.

Admittingly, I have developed feelings for one of my male friends in the past.

However, that does not signify that every group of friends (of the opposite sex) is a couple, has feelings for another or will develop feelings in the future.

This probably annoys me just as much as the first scenario.

Especially, the annoyance is caused by my interest in making friends.

I have both male and female friends. So what?

If a person has a strong relationship toward someone of the opposite sex that does not give people permission to judge, criticize, gossip and more.

If people have questions about a relationship, whether it is a concern or a genuine curiousness, then they should ask.

Still more, and I cannot stress this enough, once they have received their answers, they must respect it.

Once again, I have had cases where people have learned about my friendships with close friends and every time thereafter, I received a dirty look.

Why?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with building a strong friendship and maintaining it.

Perhaps it is these same people who judge my strong relationships who have weak ones of their own.

I don’t know their story, however, I know that I have a desire to build a strong friendship rather than the ‘hello- goodbye’ friends that we meet every day.

And for those who do not know, it takes a lot of time, effort and desire to maintain a friendship.

This is all to the unknown, or rather people choose not to build and later maintain the relationships in their life.

In all, people must be both considerate and respectful of other people’s relationships.

Email Edita at:

ebardhi@live.esu.edu