Positives and Negatives of Loyalty - Monika

            A loyal person is someone who is faithful, trustworthy, and is truthful to his or her commitments. One of the most important parts of having a loyal person in your life is that you have someone who you can rely on. Loyalty is a great quality to have, and it is a trait everyone looks for in others. In the end, it narrows down to having someone in your life who is loyal, or someone who is deceptive. As with most things, there are negatives, but there are many positives that can overpower them.

         With every positive, there is often a contrasting negative. There are some cases where people may be so loyal to someone that they may not realize when that person is taking advantage of them. Since you are a loyal person, and you do the right thing, people could potentially use that against you. You may be too loyal to the wrong person. An example is if you tell a secret to someone who you “thought” was loyal, and then they tell you one in return. Unfortunately, the next day, that person went around telling your secret, but because of who you are, you would never tell anyone his/her secret. You may be loyal yourself, but you had too much trust in that other person. Sadly, it came back to bite you in the butt.

One of my favourite television shows is called “Survivor”, and on it you can see prime examples of people being loyal, but it also shows how deceiving people can be. You make alliances to get yourself further in the game. Loyalty and trust are a big part of these alliances. People will literally do anything to get to the end, and this can completely warp your brain. An example is lying to people, and not being loyal to your alliance. There is a guy on the current season who is very disloyal, and very deceiving. There was a very loyal girl in his alliance who thought she could trust him 100%, but she had no idea that he was not to be trusted. He stated to another tribemate that he would “do anything to make her feel safe, and then vote her out.” What happened the next vote? She got voted out. This shows you how she was too loyal, and how that can come back to get you in the end. In the game of “Survivor”, you can never trust too many people. You never want to be too loyal in this game, because you never know what the outcome will be.

         There are many positives, though, to having a loyal person in your life. Firstly, you have someone that you can count on. If someone is loyal to you, they will be there for you, whether it is because you need help, or just need to talk. Some great examples of this are your family members, and even your best friend(s). You know you can trust them with anything, which proves they are loyal to you. Another thing is that loyal people stick to their word, and do not make up excuses to get out of something. You know you can trust that person to do what they say they will do.
         Being loyal will always be one of those traits that everyone looks for in others. There are positive aspects and negative aspects to being a loyal person. The question is, would you rather have someone who is loyal to you, or someone who is deceptive? The answer is simple, but I will leave that to you to decide.