Low drama isn’t boring. It’s restful to be around.

People sometimes mistake constant turbulence for being interesting. Turbulence is mostly expensive; everyone nearby spends their energy managing moods and tracking who is not speaking to whom. Someone steady feels like relief, and relief is one of the rarer things on offer in a school hallway.

Notice how you feel after an hour with each of your friends, lighter or wrung out. Then look at what you bring. You can be the easy one this week by not passing along the gossip that reached you and by letting one small irritation go unmentioned.