What if you can't/don't want to be the bigger person?

I know most of my posts speak on personal progression and essentially being the Kings & Queens of kindness, love and peace but sometimes this just isn't possible and sometimes you straight up just don't want to make peace with certain people, we are all entitled to choose whom we keep and maintain our friendships with.

Strong start I know...

Now, the reason this is on my mind is that I caught up with some old friends recently and one acquaintance, boy do I sound petty, but yes one acquaintance, an acquaintance that used to be a friend that I have no real interest in maintaining any type of relationship with. This got me thinking about the subject and what to do in such situations where you are face to face with someone you don't want in the equation.

Now to you it may sound petty and like a pointless article, but I think it's something people get stuck with a lot and I always like to be a helping hand. Let me put you in my mind, I'm heading out, I know this person may turn up and I don't want to talk to this person ever again, the less time they have in my life the better frankly. How do I address this? Do I want parting words? How do I keep my cool, when I'm so p*ssed at them? This person put me in a really negative head space at a low point in my life when we were supposed to be cool.

After much deliberation, I came to a conclusion, in these situations I see no point in being hurtful or rude to said person, why hurt someone's feelings when you know how it feels? and if you want a different way of looking at it, or in other words, my way, why spend time breeding negativity with someone you don't want around you? Honesty, as always, is the best policy... Sure, sometimes it's a bit blunt, but it cuts the nonsense and doesn't allow time for any wounds to reopen. Keep it real guys, lay it out if you need to. When they approach you, politely explain your stance on the relationship and excuse yourself, it may seem rude at first glance but I actually think it is the cleanest and politest way to deal with the situation. It also prevents a massive explosion of emotions later down the line when you actually end up in a argument with this person because you're still associated with them and haven't resolved anything because you don't want to and you don't like them!

We're grown adults, I would rather someone kept it real with me instead of stringing me along for no reason, the chances are I probably wouldn't be particularly phased and neither would said acquaintance as I mentioned, we barely talk anyway, but I do feel it is necessary to lay that boundary down ASAP to prevent any awkward tension arising in the future.

This isn't something I would usually post about but as I said it was just a passing matter on my mind that I'm sure lots of people have trouble with, I hope it helps, if you have any varying solutions to this situation let me know as I know my intentions are not always understood and are often misinterpreted.

That's all I have to say on the matter, see you in my next post!