How to stand your ground while still being respectful.

In this part of town people really like to push each other around.

It doesn't matter whether you are getting gas or buying groceries at your local market, you are undoubtedly going to encounter someone with some nasty things to say to you for reasons unknown.

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I'm not saying that everyone around here is rude. There are lot of nice people too. However, you've got to take the good with the bad, and you've got to know what to do when you encounter the bad.

I've met a few people that are really easy to push around. When someone has something negative to say to them, they will simply smile and walk away.

That can be a good idea on occasion. Especially when you're talking to someone who's had too much to drink. You don't want to get into an argument with an intoxicated person because you simply can't win.

On the other hand, if you constantly smile and walk away then you're never actually standing your ground.

Standing your ground is a very important thing to learn how to do.

You don't want to be rude about it though. Nobody likes a big jerk.

The best thing to do is to stand up for yourself while at the same time not act overly aggressive.

Don't let someone push you, but at the same time don't push back very hard.

The reason I'm writing this has to do with an encounter I just had recently at the grocery store.

I stopped at the store to buy single pizza. One single pizza. I walked up to the front, and there was only one counter open. In that counter were three ladies with giant carts each filled with over a hundred items.

It looked like these ladies were doing their monthly shopping. Nothing wrong with that.

Another aisle open up at the far end.

Since I was right there, I walked up to the person as she was lighting it up.

Next person in line! she yelled out, even though I was standing right there with my pizza in my hand.

She grabbed the pizza, rang it in, and I paid her for it. I was just about to walk off as one of the ladies with a giant cart was arriving at the lane. It only took me about one minute to pay for the pizza. This lady took more time than that to even arrive in the aisle.

Unless she muttered under her breath.

You weren't the next person in line you punk. How dare you jump ahead. Freaking bastard.

Really?

She hadn't even arrived to the aisle yet. It literally took me less than one minute to pay for my single pizza while she had over a hundred items in her grocery cart.

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I turned to her and looked her right in the eye.

_ I apologize if I've ruined your day, ma'am._

I was hoping I could get out of here quickly because I only have the one single item, and there is no express lane open. You appear to have about a hundred items, and I know that's going to take a while. I appreciate your patience and I do hope you manage to salvage the rest of your day. See you later!

I'm sure she took that as me being sarcastic jerk, but I really did want her to have a good day.

There was absolutely no way that I possibly could have inconvenienced her given that she wouldn't have even been at the aisle before I was done with my purchasing.

She wanted to complain though, and she was given the opportunity to do so.

I couldn't exactly stand by and let her insult me though.

Would I have acted exactly the same way if it was a 500 pound weightlifter man?

You bet.

There wasn't anything insulting about my language. I meant exactly what I said, and I didn't want to inconvenience that person.

However, she was really out of line to use that kind of tone with a person should never met before.

Will she change her attitude? Certainly not. In fact, I'm sure that there are a lot of people that are frustrated by her negative sentiment.

That's okay though. It doesn't have much to do with me. I just couldn't stand by and allow someone to completely disrespect me without saying my peace. I stood my ground, but I still managed to smile and be respectful.

You shouldn't let anyone push you around.

That doesn't mean you have to be a jerk about things though.