Annoying people can be difficult to deal with

This archived article was written by: Leland Lobato

I recently attended my first staff meeting as a writer for CEU’s newspaper, “The Eagle.” It was quite an interesting meeting, which many topics were discussed, most of them I cannot mention here or I would have to eliminate all of you, and that is a lot more work than I am willing to commit to at this point in my life.
One thing I can say happened is that it was decided, somehow, that I would write a column about gossip. Gossip is lame, and that is all I have to say about gossip at this time. I have decided, instead, to tell you about something I realized recently.
I have a friend who flew in from out of state recently. This friend was visiting her friends in Utah, myself being one of them. She was all ready to go home last weekend when an emergency happened in Idaho. Without hesitation, I let her use my car to drive there so she could handle her business even though this friend is monumentally annoying. I cannot stress enough the lengths I am willing to go through to avoid the presence of the annoying people in my life.
When I was thinking about ideas for this article, it occurred to me that annoyance was the main concern I had with the whole situation was my own annoyance with my friend. A quick Internet search using Google told me annoying means 1. To cause slight irritation to (another) by troublesome, often repeated acts. 2. To harass or disturb by repeated attacks. It is synonymous with: annoy, irritate, bother, irk, vex, provoke, aggravate, peeve, rile. My search turned up millions of results with the word annoying in it. Everything from the most annoying email signatures to annoying people, annoying subjects, annoying things celebrities did.
So my annoyance with my friend is minor compared to the people who were so annoyed by something they dedicated a part of their lives to it by starting a website and letting the entire world know about it. I will not dedicate a website to my annoying friend.
Every single person can relate to this problem, especially if you live in a dorm. That kid down the hall that does not know a good time to not be talking, the lady with way too many coupons at the supermarket, that guy in class (you know the one) who forgot to put on deodorant this morning, and every other morning, etc. I could go on but you must get the picture by now. My friend is one of these people.
Now what surprises me about that whole situation is that although she is really a sweet and genuinely good person, one of the few I have ever encountered in my lifetime, the fact of the matter is that I often want to wring her little neck. She talks a lot, and about things that I really do not care to talk about. She is bossy and nags me and gets on my nerves.
Why would I let a person like that use my car? Would you let someone who, often, causes you so much aggravation as to almost cause physical discomfort, use your vehicle? I hope so, because if I can bring myself to do something like that it should not be all that difficult for others. Maybe I am crazy but although I do not like her, I really do like her. She would let me use her car had the situation been reversed and I know for a fact that I get on her nerves at least every bit as much as she does mine. I do it on purpose though.
The point of my telling you this is that I know a lot of you probably know someone that annoys you. Believe me I know what that is like. My life is filled with the presence of the annoying people in the world. They have taught me patience and forgiveness. I know how hard it is to deal with these people, and they often do not know that they are annoying. But they are still people. They have to put up with you every bit as much as you have to put up with them. Even though you may not like them, they deserve to be treated respectfully. Believe it or not, all of you are annoying to someone else. The thing about that is we all have to be here together so we may as well help each other out if need be. After all we all could use a friend, or at least a hand every now and again, and who knows, the annoying person may even end up being you.
Just in case anybody is wondering, I would not eliminate anybody out there reading this article.