Blog 10

Hello Again!

Well this is my last post of the semester. I will be addressing the questions asked in the assignment guide.

I learned so much about my communication skills when I took this class it is a shock. I learned that I am a person that likes to have small talk before we get to the serious stuff. I discovered that I am a person that listens with choice and not intense focus. I also realized that I wasn’t very aware of my surroundings. I have decided that these are subjects that I am planning on working on.

I feel that the way that my communication style affects my family and school relationships or just my life in general in many ways. I realized that how I communicate with others affects the way that people talk back to me. Also if I don’t listen to people then I run into the problem of them not wanting to listen to me. I decided to change the way that I respond to people so that I can change how I communicate in the future.

The most powerful thing that I learned about my communication style is that it can be changed and altered or trained for the lack of a better word. I am not saying that I don’t like how I communicate with people I just like that it can be worked on to make it better. I believe that as long as you actively work on the way that you communicate with people or just how you communicate with your inner self than you can truly make a difference.

One of the most difficult things that I discovered about myself when I was taking this class was how much I really didn’t listen to people and how unaware I was of my surroundings. I have always told people that I am a good listener and I have actually discovered that I am a horrible listener and that I truly don’t listen to others. The funniest part however is that I am a person that likes to have small talk before I get into the depths of a conversation.

Yes I do feel that I changed the way that I communicate compared to how I used to communicate. I feel that there was a change because I notice how I am communicating more often than before I took this class. I also have been working a lot on my listening skills, trying to make them better and myself more aware of what the people around me are saying. I also have tried to keep myself from saying unnecessary things that I later regret saying. I actually am really proud of how much this class has changed that fact alone.

If I could give someone who is looking to change the way that they communicate advice from this class it would be simply to read the book that was assigned for this class. The way that the book was laid out taught me so much about communication and the ways that a person communicates it actually shocked me. I feel that the best way to get someone to change the way that they communicate is to read and intake the information for themselves. A form of paper proof is better than someone just trying to tell you what they think. I also feel that the book covers any question that someone could have and gives great examples on how to explain the type of communication style. I believe that reading this book can change the way that someone thinks about how they communicate and what are the better ways to communicate.

Stephanie

Blog 9

Hello Again!

So it has been a very long day and this post will definitely show how my emotions are feeling right now. I decided that I would like to talk about the “dreaded family member”. In this case that person for me is my Uncle Kevin. This is a fact that I realized just recently when he showed up to our house for the holidays. I have never spent time with my uncle in what I have decided to call “my space” or my house. I have spent time with him at reunions and such but it was always away from my space so I didn’t feel invaded. However this time my dad’s brother decided to show up for thanksgiving on Tuesday of last week and hasn’t left yet. I first off would like to say that I truly do love my Uncle seeing as how he is the only one that I have. However, I have discovered over the last few days that he is the one person on this planet that can push every single button that I have. He decided during his stay that he wanted to do some rearranging around our house without asking anyone around my house if it was okay to do it. It all started with him throwing a bunch of our towels and a rug from our bathroom away. Then the next day we went out to the garage to see that everything had been moved around and was located in different places from where they should be. This was then followed by him cleaning out our cupboards and rearranging our dishes in our kitchen. For some reason this is in his eyes seen as helping us with stuff around the house and showing gratitude of being invited to the holiday. To me this is something that is extremely annoying and I actually find it kind of rude because he is acting if he is moving into our house. He also has a side of trying to prove that he is always right no matter what the conversation is and no matter what facts are given to counter his point he is always right. As I am writing this we just had another example of him doing what I am saying. He wants to Google every answer that he doesn’t know so when I just did this to him he told me I was wrong and ran downstairs. I just didn’t realize how complicated he can make things be. Other than that I want everyone to have a good night and talk to you soon!

Stephanie

Blog 8

Hello Again! 

First and foremost Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope everyone had a great holiday and spent a lot of time eating. This week the post I decided that I would like to talk about how stressful hosting a Thanksgiving can be and how a family invasion can cause serious conflict. Like every year and I might as well say every day my mom and I are responsible for cooking dinner while everyone else just hangs around and does nothing. Well at least until their stomach starts getting hungry and then they invade the kitchen and send me and my mom into complete fits because we get a plan set out roughly 3 weeks before Thanksgiving, We had it all very organized and we had a set that that made our cooking flow very smoothly. When everyone starts invading and my dad starts thinking that he is in charge me and my mom just ran straight outside and away from the mess that we know is going to happen that we now have to clean before we can we can finish cooking. I found this entertaining because it took something so small to make both me and my mom freak out and have to actually leave the area where everyone else was at. It made me realize that my mom and I have the same idea when it comes to dealing with a mass of people that want to invade our “space” for lack of better word. The best part though was that we went out two different doors to get to the garage and when we ran (literally) into each other we scared the day lights out of each other, we noticed that neither of us were upstairs we ran to get back to the kitchen which was a good thing seeing as how my dad had started to use certain items that were set aside for other sides that were being made.  Besides the fact that this caused a lot of conflict there was also the issue of my uncle who for some reason has serious paranoia that every person is out to get him and that they will stop at nothing to get to him. He is also so set in his way that no matter how many facts you give about any topic he has a solid opinion about it and that will not ever change. I decided the best way to deal with this after three days of dealing was to just avoid him and not even put about with him because it will start a conflict that is best avoided. 

Stephanie

Blog 7

Hello Again!

So today I decided that I wanted to discuss how people visibly and verbally communicate when the weather changes. It is something that I have been thinking about most of the day so I decided I was going to write a post on it. Yesterday Casper was dumped with a bunch of snow and it instantly created a noticeable difference in people’s attitudes. The first attitude change that I noticed was in my own house. Everyone woke up Friday morning knowing that it was going to snow from the how cloudy and cold it was outside. It was very quiet morning in my house which doesn’t happen that often, even more so since my nephew stayed the night that night. After I had gotten ready for the day and left my house is when I got the real picture of how much the attitude had changed overnight. (I must add on the side that my Friday was a very long day so this attitude change might have just been a projection of how I was feeling. My tire blew out Friday morning so I spent all day doing that.) Now back to the overall attitude change. The first thing that you notice is the overall color change; every person’s wardrobes changed from the slightly brighter summer colors to the fall colors right away. The next thing that I noticed was that everyone was moving at a slower pace. I find this most interesting about the winter weather, that it actually has the ability to slow down people (and I don’t just mean their driving!). It also seems to make everyone, even though it is cloudy and crappy be in a slightly better mood or at least more polite. Everyone seems to look out for others, hold doors open more, tell people to have good days and to stay warm. I don’t know what it is about this weather that makes this change and I am shocked that it took me this class to actually realize that this is a change that does happen. It just truly shocked me to see the change effect an entire society and how unaware everyone else is to this change.

Stephanie!

Blog 6

Hello Everyone!

It has been one heck of a week that is for sure. I can say that most of my communicating when out the window this week once I realized the pile of stuff that I had to do for myself. My week started off with me taking my first test that I studied for all weekend. I happened to get a B on that which was so bad, biology isn’t my best subject. Later that night I went out to dinner with my Great Aunt Jonnie, she is 84 and one of the most coherent people I have met. It is so funny watching her tell my Uncle Bob that she knows exactly what he wants to order and orders for him. The best part is that when she placed the order for him he got really excited and asked where she had found that at. Of course she just gave him a look and went back to ordering her meal. I guess in a roundabout way of saying I guess that she knows him better than I thought. It made me happy to see a couple that have been together for like 40 years that known each other so well. I spent most of my Tuesday finishing my paper on why Rush is the best band ever which actually made Tuesday and overall enjoyable day seeing as how there is enough Rush music to start listening in the morning and never hear the same song twice in a day. (which I am proud After finishing that I spent the rest of the week study for my biology lab practical that I had on Thursday to say that I got an A on….GO ME!). I finished out the week with my mom’s 51^st birthday which was a pretty big day. She was super excited with it being 11/11/11; somehow she thought that it was super lucky. My Saturday was spent doing absolutely nothing; expect sleeping and trying to get my brain back to a functioning level. As for today, I got up bright and early and started the day off great. Nothing is better then football, Mexican food, and left over birthday cake. I hope everyone is having a great day and have a good week!

Stephanie