Confrontation

Is it worthwhile to oppose somebody publicly if they have caused you considerable frustration? This occurred to me the other day when I encountered such a situation. I apologise in advance for the following definitely doesn't rank very high on the list of things to get justifiably annoyed at, but it led me to this thought process so I am including it for its relevance.

I'm in the library, waiting in the PC lab for the next available terminal. There is a girl in front of me, fair enough. You should know this PC lab consists of two rooms, one tucked away behind the main one, both of them have PC's in. A girl struts in from the main entrance, walks straight past the two of us queueing and goes into the other room, expecting to be able to use one of the PC's in there should she spot one, despite two people already waiting. When she came out having had no luck finding an empty spot, she joins the queue behind me for approximately 30 seconds before walking out.

This situation almost got me confronting the girl in question asking her if she thought she didn't have to queue to use them, as she apparently didn't believe that was the case. Except I didn't, because where would it have gotten me? Would I have been seen as the bad guy for making a scene out of it, even though she was in the wrong? Would she have learned from it? Would I have learned from it?

Despite the tameness of the above example, it does make me wonder when it is ok to take the step of confronting somebody. Certain situations, where for example your girlfriend has been made the target of mocking, or had something happen to her like a drink spilled on her with the perpetrator seemingly oblivious, it seems like it's expected for you to stand up to them. Other situations, maybe when your friend has inadvertently made you feel uncomfortable or unwelcome, it seems almost expected for you to keep quiet as not to cause a scene. Is there a middle ground, or is it always one way or the other?

If I were a braver man, I would probably challenge myself to confront everybody for one day or even a week and see what reactions I get. However, realistically given the average day for me, it wouldn't really be enough of an experiment. If anybody happens to come across this and believes in it one way or another, I would be really interested to know what you think.

In other news, I tried this really easy recipe out today, and it turned out really tasty. I highly recommend it: Yum