One of my good friends and I have polar opposite views on almost everything: I'm agnostic, she's Catholic. I'm a liberal, she's a conservative. I like chocolate, she likes cheese (okay, I like cheese too, but that's beside the point). We have little in common besides our love of glitter, being random, and going to Baby's on Mondays for milkshakes and gossip. Because, let's be real here, who doesn't love to gossip? Because we know what topics to avoid, we can generally maintain good friend status and go on with our lives. Sometimes tension arises, but usually that's from my hips after sitting a classroom for an hour.
However, with the elections approaching and the debates being a major talking point, we've gotten into quite a few debates of our own. Things got heated. Then ugly. It's a lucky thing facebook doesn't have a screaming match emoticon, or that thing would've been abused to no end. I felt a friendship slowly degrading because our views were so fundamentally different, mainly because, after much thought and reflection, I've decided to take a pro-choice stand, and she takes a pro-life one. Abortion was something I had a Republican view on for quite some time, and it's still something I don't take lightly. If I were to be faced with a pregnancy, I wouldn't personally be able to abort. Yet for many reasons, I am pro-choice, and this was the topic that raised the most screaming matches and name calling from both sides.
These are vitally important topics, and I am in no-way demeaning them, but because I know I cannot change someone's mindset, nor should I try, I avoid these conversations like Jillian Michaels avoids ice cream. Friends are great to discuss important and challenging topics with, but especially during the stress of freshman year, I also look to them for escape from the monotony of life. I mean, who else can you throw crazy random dance parties with, or walk around telling towns-folk that "Jack loves them"? It's a thing that happened:
Jack Attack!
Politics are ugly. Vital, but let the already sworn enemies attack each other with it. Friends can be different, they can think the others' views are sooooo last term, but it's still possible to maintain pleasant, if not great, relationships with them. After all, if we were all clones of each other, that would be a little like bland noodles on a rainy day.
Who likes bland noodles? No one, I tell you.
Namaste.
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