High and Mighty

By Peter Glagowski
Staff Editor

Headaches and frustration are about all have around my friend…

Hanging out with friends can be the pinnacle of one’s night. Ending a particularly rough day with people who accept you and will lift your morale definitely hits the spot. But I’m sure we all have that one friend who just doesn’t know when to be quiet or just doesn’t understand that his personality is demeaning to others.

This can be one thing when they are slightly immature or just want to fit in badly, but when you’ve been friendly with this person for close to 5 years and they still have a superiority complex, you know something has got to give.

My friend pretty much views himself as Christ Jesus, so anyone else is below that image. We can’t make fun of him, we can’t offer advice to him and we always need to listen to his complaints about person A, B, C and D.

I have a hard time trying to figure out exactly where his behavior came from. I remember meeting the kid back in 2002 and he wasn’t so high and mighty, but in the past year he has become intolerable.

One of my older friends recently met this kid and suddenly they were enemies. There is no real reason behind this fracture, but hell if my friend doesn’t see fit to run his mouth every time he’s near me about my older friend. He even expects me to take his side, especially when my older friend is much closer to me.

What really brings my piss to a boil is how my friend not so subtlety brags about his girlfriend. He thinks he is disguising his comparisons cleverly, but we all know that he is simply saying, “HAHA, I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND AND YOU DON’T!” First of all, I don’t want to know about you and a girl together and second, why does having a girlfriend matter? Are we suddenly lesser people because we don’t have significant others?

On the subject of girlfriends, what I don’t need to hear is someone’s sexual history, or more specifically, their present sexual activities. While I’ve blocked out a lot of what my friend says, I can’t shake things like, “I enjoy foreplay a lot!” or “I think I pulled my groin last night.” Why is that proper discussion for friends?

Another thing that I’ve never understood is how my friend has to belittle his brother at every step. His brother says one word incorrectly and suddenly he needs to be thrown to the wolves. We even played a prank on him that ended up resulting in, “I WILL POISON YOUR DRINK!” What makes matters worse is that when we revealed it was a prank and gave him his actual food, he never apologized. So now he’s not allowed to make mistakes?

My friend’s poor brother probably has to be on the brink of suicide. I’ve never seen any actual fists go flying, but my friend may be close to that. I remember one night when my friend asked for his brother to retrieve his laptop in the other room, yet his brother refused. My friend stormed out and dropped so many curse words that a sailor would blush.

If you get this kid started about something he enjoys (like a particular movie or video game series) and you will never hear the end of it. We all have no clue what he is even talking about, but he’ll drill it into our heads until blood is flowing from our ears. Then if we say anything bad about it, we get instant retaliation.

So what is my secret exactly? Well, I’ve never brought these complaints to my friend’s attention. While I have tried stopping him from condemning his brother so much, I’ve never been able to just out right say, “I can’t stand your behavior you inconsiderate ass.” I cannot stand being around this kid, yet I’ve endured this torture for 5 years because I’m weak.

The only real solution to this kind of problem would be to confront the person. If they really are boasting at every turn, there is no reason to sit there and take it. You can also try and avoid the person, but that is only covering up the problem (even if it seems to work).

Is there any absolution in this? Possibly, but I do need to write these feelings to at least let others know that it is okay if you are having mixed thoughts about one of your so called “friends.” No one is perfect and we all have someone we just cannot stand to be in the same room with, so do not feel awkward if this same situation has happened to you.