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How a Small Miscommunication Cost Me 4 Years of a Good Friendship
Unsaid words hurt more
Difficult conversations are a litmus test of your communication skills because they show whether you control your emotions or are slaves to their whims.
I reconciled with a friend, Jay, at our mutual friend Hugh’s wedding after 4 years of irrational hate against him because we weren’t willing to accept what happened between us in the past.
Here is a short version of it. Internships are necessary in the pre-final year to qualify for campus placements. In college, I applied for an internship and organised interviews for 25+ people. Some got selected. Some didn’t.
When Jay got rejected, he raged at me like I sabotaged his application. Since I was also dealing with a mental health issue at that time, I got defensive but silently. I let him speak, and we never got on the same page until four years later, at Hugh’s wedding.
The difficult conversation
When a mutual friend, Chris, brought us together to clear the air at Hugh’s wedding, the discussion was uncomfortable, awkward, and extremely painful for me.
None of us knew how to start the conversation, so I took the lead and started rambling about how Jay scarred my reputation by…