Do you like her????

This is a question I hear a lot. If there is a new girl, and someone finds out I know her or knew her at a past duty station, they'll ask me if I like her.... I guess they are wanting to know if they should give her a chance. As a military spouse, I meet new military spouses weekly. I'm lucky, I know! I have so many friends and acquaintances. There is always something to do and someone to do something with! Well, you know the old saying,  within a blessing often comes a curse. The curse of meeting so many people and constantly being around a LARGE group of women is you get....... can you guess?? GOSSIP. Is that what you guessed? If you're a woman, I bet you did! Well, this is something I TRY hard to stay away from. You NEVER know if that girl being gossiped about is one day going to be your close friend. Or your neighbor. In Guam. Or Korea. Or Japan. Or Italy. When you're by yourself and don't know anyone and need and DESPERATELY want a friend. Don't mess up what could be a good relationship because you want to spread your OH SO wonderful opinion on something you noticed within 5 seconds of knowing her. Word and actions can be misinterpreted. If someone that you don't know very well does something to offend you, give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you misinterpreted something or they said something they didn't realize came across a certain way. If one of your friends doesn't like the new girl....there is a large group of people, NOT EVERYONE is going to get along. If one of your friends doesn't like her, that doesn't mean you shouldn't like her. My husband is always telling me, "STAY OUT OF THE GOSSIP!" The main reason, he's a very religious person. And he is one of those guys that practices what he preaches...which is one of the reasons I love him so much and am a better person being with him. The other reason he tells me to stay away from gossip is because it leads to.....can you guess again? DRAMA. My husband HATES drama.


I was at a party recently (a food tasting party), and the leader who was telling us about the food said to us, "don't yucky someone's yummy." Meaning, if you don't like it, don't tell the other person because THEY might LOVE IT. When someone asks me "do you like her?" I try to remember this. I might not care for the person, but they might end up LOVING her. So I shouldn't unload my great opinions on why I don't "like" her. So, if I don't like someone and I'm asked that, I bring up something I DO like.


It's something I TRY to do, and I struggle with....so I'm pretty much preaching to myself here.


GOSSIP. GO. AWAY.