Picking Your Battles

Today I really want to focus on the idea of respect for your elders. It is written everywhere, and a rule that we have done our best to follow as people as long as anyone can remember. However, I think there is a time and a place where you have to stand up for yourself, pick your battles, and defend your opinions.
Time and time again I see people back to to adults because they feel that although they are right, the adults are the adults and that gives them a free pass to be right no matter what the circumstance is. Now I am not saying that you should argue a punishment for being out late or something like that. These petty things are so small in perspective that you really need to just let things like that go. In hindsight most likely you will realize that every punishment you have received has been for a good reason and you are a better person because of it.
What I am talking about here is the idea that elders can say what they want about you and you just have to take it. I do not care if it is a family member, or a stranger, or anyone, if you are offended you need to defend yourself. You can't let people walk all over you for the soul reason that they are older. Allow me to explain in further detail.
My family is the typical close knit Italian family that sees each other at least once a week. My mothers entire side of the family lives in the same town, and every Friday and Sunday we have dinner together. Now my grandmother on my mom's side, God bless her, has a very big problem with voicing her opinions. She really just says whatever comes into her head and she does not care who she offends. On top of that she does not ever want to be wrong and will argue to the death. Today I had one of the most frustrating arguments I have ever had with her.
Let me start by saying that I have had a problem with my back for the past few months but was not smart enough to ever see a doctor, recently I suffered an injury that re aggravated the injury. and it has only gotten worse since. I am at risk of losing my summer job that consists of manual labor, and without that money it is gonna be near impossible to pay my rent at my off campus house I live in at school.
So I am already upset to begin with and very distraught over the whole situation, but I still go to my grandmother's house with the family to try and forget about it. I was messing around with my younger cousins who I only really get to see in the summer, only to hear from my grandma that I am faking my injury, making my mom miserable, tearing apart my family, and so on. Now everyone tends to back down from my grandma because we all know her personality, and usually I would be the first one to do the same. However, I am not letting anyone tell me that I am faking an injury that has caused me so much pain and grief.
The result of this argument was my grandma telling me to leave the house and so I did. I do not plan on going there anytime soon.
My point here is this, in your life you are given certain choices. People are always going to try and break you. There is always going to be someone in your life who is trying to put you down no matter how well you are doing. What we have to do is know when to turn our cheek. The problem with us as a society is that people tend to constantly confront or constantly turn the other cheek. Every situation is different, and you can not possibly use the same rules for every individual circumstance. We have to asses each case as it arises in our lives. Then and only then can we truly decide what the right thing to do is. Now I do not know right now if what I did was right or wrong. What I do know is that I stood up for myself and showed my family that I will not be walked all over no matter who it is by, and for that I will never apologize.