Never hold a grudge

The most helpful thing for me that we discussed about conflict resolution was the graph showing how a happy couple should deal with conflict. I vaguely remember hearing somewhere else that couples that have extreme fights are often relatively happier. This can be a little misleading, because it might make people think that letting anger out is a healthy way to deal with emotions. But like we said in class, aggression leads to aggression. Instead, the reason these couples are happier is because they bring the conflict out into the open and they quickly resolve the issue that is making them angry. I also wrote down in my notes that happy couples don't let anger linger.
I used to think that fighting was always destructive in relationships, but I think I would rather have deal with explosive arguments for a short period of time if I knew they would lead to conflict resolution shortly afterwards. I have noticed some of these patterns in my relationships with my friends. My best friend and I were roommates for a while, and everyone told us that it would ruin our friendship. While we did get into a few bad fights we are still best friends and possibly even closer than before. We didn't let the anger from a past argument linger once we were done fighting. I think it's important to remember that no relationship of any type is going to be free of disagreement, but you shouldn't let that bother you all of the time.