Honesty Is The Best Policy Essay

One would think that living with a friend, a very close and dear friend, can only enhance the quality of the relationship. The fact of the matter is that it is quite different seeing someone on a regular basis, socializing with him or her at a given moment, and spending most of the day with that same person, sharing one’s abode. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that many personal qualities may surface, positive as well as negative, during the course of such an arrangement. Sometimes, the negative outshine the positive and one must decide how to deal with this unpleasant affair. To be a silent doormat or to be the overly voiced nagger? The truth is simple, one must find a balance and deal with any inconsistencies in the relationship in calm, yet decisive manner, taking into account the emotions and attitudes of both parties. Having found myself in such a predicament, more than once, where I was forced to tell a friend something he was not too happy to hear, I have learned that it is always best to stick to the truth, because no relationship can thrive on hidden feelings of disapproval.
During this particular period of my life, I found myself living with a childhood friend of mine, and a very dear friend at that. Prior to this arrangement, we used to spend a lot of time together; we had the same interests in music, books, movies and always had attention-grabbing topics to amuse ourselves with. This is why sharing an apartment seemed like a grand idea. However, as it turned out later on, I came to find out that my friend was extraordinarily messy, sometimes even to the point of being unhygienic, which came as quite a shock to someone like myself, who was a pedantic “clean freak.” The dishes in the sink when it was his turn to wash them, the filthy clothes scattered across the room, hair in the bath tub, on the soap and numerous others shocking exposures of my friend’s disorderliness left me pulling my hair from the roots.
Naturally, something had to be done. At first, I tried using subtle hints that this is our home after all, and we should not be living like pigs, or in any similar manner. Apparently, my friend found it amusing that I needed such spotlessness and had no intention of changing his habits. Moving out was out of the question, because it would imply the consequential destruction of our friendship, and in addition, I was more than reluctant to go through the whole ordeal of finding another apartment all over again, perhaps even having to pay more than what I was paying at the time, which would have been devastating to my already fickle financial plans. Thus, the only way to resolve this would have to be talking to my friend very seriously and telling him that we cannot continue like this. After a whole day of sweating over how he would react, I was relieved to see him taking it calmly, listening to what I had to say and then replying in a most reasonable manner that he understood, that friendship is a two way street, especially under such conditions and that sacrifices had to be made on both sides, and finally, that he was more than willing to give it a go my way.
I was more than satisfied with my decision to be completely honest with my friend, instead of just moving out and continuing to see him occasionally, provided that I had a good reason for moving out. This experience has taught me that it is always the best choice to be honest with people, despite the fact that it is not always the easiest. No relationship can flourish under false pretences of any kind.
Like most people, I like to consider myself a reasonable enough person, understanding yet emphatic, with whom one can always reach an agreement appealing to both sides. Yet, I do not consider myself an ideal person or a person easy to live with. This is exactly what I said to my friend that very same evening. Human interaction is not about looking for perfect people and surrounding yourself with them. This is impossible. Rather, it is about understanding human flaws, and through truth and sympathetic words helping one another become better human beings.