10 Things That Irritate Me About You

And how all of them have to do with me

Photo by Andrey Zvyagintsev on Unsplash

People can be irritating. It’s in our nature. No matter how well-intentioned we may be, we will always succeed at being irritating to someone at some point. There is no escaping it. Glad that’s out of the way.

What’s the good news? Most of the things that irritate us about each other are pretty funny. They are idiosyncrasies of our mutual existence, and together, we can love them, and joke about them. So let’s have a laugh, shall we? And while we’re at it, let’s actually get to the bottom of why these things irritate us so much.

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” — Carl Jung

The vignettes below are real irritations of real people, but their names have been changed.

1. It irritates me when you don’t fully finish a task.

Grayson likes putting away half-dry cutlery in the drawer. Or leaving a heap of clean pans in a tower on the counter. He will thoughtfully pour milk into Victoria’s coffee, but thoughtlessly leave a useless drop in the carton and put it back in the fridge, instead of emptying it and throwing it out.

When asked why this irritates her, Victoria answers “because I’m a Virgo”. Upon deeper reflection, she confesses that really, it has to do with her values and standards. “If you’re going to do a task, do it until the end, and do it well, otherwise, what’s the point?” Grayson shrugs.

2. It irritates me when you fall asleep really early, or mid-Netflixing.

Iggy is a night owl. Pete is not. Sometimes while Iggy is having a heart to heart with Pete, they will notice a prolonged silence. “No one likes to hear a snore as a response to a vulnerable confession,” Iggy says. Meanwhile, Pete is restful and content, snoozing in the arms of his beloved.

It’s worse on the nights when they planned to watch a show together. “I wanted to watch the show, but you asked me to wait to watch it with you”, Iggy says frustrated, “and in the end, I just ended up watching it alone anyways.”