Blog 4

My best friend had always come to me for advice about how to deal with her terrible boyfriend. As a good friend, I always tried to guide her into the direction that would help her to gain independence and happiness. However, she would never take my advice and always ended up depressed because she would continue to allow him to treat her horribly. After I supported her through this for a year, I finally quit giving her advice and just told her to figure it out on her own hoping that she’d be able to realize on her own the things that I had told her all those times. After that, she became extremely upset with me and told me that I wasn’t a good friend to her. I really struggled with this because, although I wanted to be there for her, I couldn’t help but to just ignore her drama and let her figure it out on her own. It hurt me that she thought my approach to her situation was one in which I wasn’t being a good friend, but it was the last thing I could do. My personal values that were challenged through this were that I really value loyalty and trust. My friend no longer valued my loyalty as a friend, and did not trust me to be there for her. In the end, I knew that I had responded to her situation because she eventually got out of the toxic relationship and thanked me for letting her figure it out on her own. She thanked me for all the advice I had given her in the past and told me that I was a great friend. Ethical decision making relates to social change because it empowers individuals to continue to do the right, moral thing and encourages others to do so to, which creates a better society.