A look behind my eyes

I have this friend, great girl, but I think I may end up saying something awful to her. She’s really nice when she’s not doing certain things that just make me want to tear my hair out. I’m not sure how to tell her to stop without going into a screaming rage because every time I think about it, I just get madder. She has a really bad habit of picking on people for things they do and say. I don’t think it’s something she does consciously, but it’s just so rude.

For example, she enjoys repeating things people say and laughing at them. I hang out with a lot of people from other countries as well as different parts of the U.S. We all have our own accents and ways to say things. For the most part, we all just smile and maybe giggle if someone says something a little weird. We do that the first time they say it and then we get over it. This girl repeats the silly word or phrase each and every time they say it. I’m not just talking one or two times here, I’ve known her for almost a year and she still repeats things that she did when I first met her.

Being from Wisconsin originally, there are certainly words that I say that clearly show where I was raised. It’s not something you can help and it is amazingly annoying when someone feels the need to mention it every single time you say something that isn’t the way she says it. It especially bothers me when she does it to certain international friends of mine. They worked very hard to learn English, some even teaching themselves, and to be constantly belittled because they said something a little differently is just not ok.

And then there are the “Oh, I saw you!” moments. It doesn’t matter what someone does, if it’s not part of what’s going on she must mention it. If you are re-tucking your shirt, yawning, randomly checking out someone walking by, she feels the need to announce it to everyone like you have commented some kind of strange hilarious offense.

I just don’t know how to deal with the situation. I just can’t figure out why someone would constantly look for ways to call people out for being different. We are all different, albeit some of us more than others, but that’s what makes the world interesting. I just hope I can find a way to tell her to stop without damaging our friendship and before I’ve had enough and just knock her out.