Dear Anita,

Thank you for your concern. I really appreciate it.

I completely agree with you about the assertiveness. I don’t have many friends, and my family is my support system in so many ways. Therefore, I feel like I don’t want to disappoint her or my family. What you say is true which is why I now see why I would have preferred to turn Richard down myself instead of telling my mother that I was not interested.

You are right, looking at it, I did seem to be open to negotiation. I wasn’t, but I made it seem like I was. I suppose I felt that telling my mom that I did not feel like it would be enough to get her to understand. Clearly, it wasn’t. So I will definitely do my best to be more assertive the next time this topic comes up.