lesson #45: Gentle words can make a difference...

holidays're in and for those who ain't flyin back to their homelands, we've found ways to spend the time together in Singapore... one of them involves goin over to one of our rooms n havin (legal) fun, like playin Risk n sippin a little mix of gin n juice...

we were laughin, shoutin, and a lotta excitement (the gin didn't make us drunk, luckily...).. this we did with so much fun until we didn't realize the time showed 0130hours... and sadly, we forgot that we ain't the only ones livin in a hall... some people ain't "alive" at such unhealthy hours...

expected yet unanticipated, the night guard on patrol knocked on my friend's room door... Crap, i told myself.. (the last time this happened, the guard was such a jerk i was so pissed i wished i could pounce on him n beat the living hell outta him..) ..

but that night was different...

the guard didn't yell.. he didn't put on a Punch-me-til-i-bleed-cuz-im-sucha-jerk face... in fact, he smiled.. he politely asked us to quieten down.. cuz at the decibel levels we're producin, it seemed like we had pissed some hall residents enough for them to complain to the guard...

he asked us a favor... so that he wouldn't get another complaint..

and unlike my previous encounter, i reacted with a lot more respect for this man... i respect him for his patience n tact when dealing with rebellious post-teen-yet-not-adult-enough individuals like us, includin me...

and we ended thankin him for lettin us know our vice n he left us to our own discretion.. and trust me, i kept remindin my friends to tone down our volume.. out of respect for him..

although i've been trainin myself to use gentle words n a soft approach in dealing with people, especially strangers, that night was the first time in a long time where i was at the other end... i was the one hearin those words directed at me... and i felt the difference it made...

though dealing with different people might require different approaches, it might be possible to start with gentle words in any scenario (except in life-threatening danger)... at least when talkin to teens n adults (who - like me - don't like being told by Mr-and-Mrs-Right...)...

so who knows, using some tact n a string of gentle words are actually effective enough to get the job done...

Gentle words can make a difference. It might even make someone calm enough to listen to what you're saying.