The lesson Tia taught. We were fortunate to both have gotten into the same college. We choice different majors and therefore didn’t see much of each other. One day when leaving class Tia came and asked for a ride. Of course. One ride home led to a daily ask. At the time, I felt like she was taking advantage of me.
Taking her home was not on my way to where I was going. It was actually out of the way. Not wanting conflict or confrontation, I decided to leave earlier so that I wouldn’t have to say no or have a difficult conversation.
I went through an exercise to neutralize my perception of the situation. I looked at a time when I took advantage of someone and the benefits and drawbacks for Tia.
I can see that Tia had many benefits that I could have considered and had a healthy conversation on how I felt about the daily ask. We got to spend time together that we weren’t spending since we choose different majors. She had the reliability and safety of having a ride home. Tia was putting herself through school, so saving every penny would have helped other areas of her life.
Thank you, Tia, for wanting to spend time with me and finding a way to do so. Thank you for trusting me to help you. Thank you for helping me to see things from a different perspective. Thank you for allowing me to be part of your success. I am proud of the woman, mother you have become. I miss and will always love you as my dear friend.