Final Blog

Well time to get a little sappy. I can honestly say that taking this course is up there in the top 5 classes I’ve liked at this school. I really enjoyed all the activities we did and I felt that they were taught to us in a very engaging way. Taking a jumbo was not my first choice. By the way the class was run though, it flew by so fast! I learned a lot from this course and from my professor. As we go through life we should be proactive in it and always challenging ourselves to become better versions of ourselves. I learned that no matter how much we try not to communicate with each other, its impossible not to. We will always be communicating with each other. Even someone actively trying not to communicate will still give off nonverbal cues or visual cues. I learned that impersonal was a word. (even though I already pretty much knew it was a thing, now I had a word to go with the meaning) There is a big difference in how you interact with people who you have interpersonal relationships verse impersonal ones. We should strive to have strong interpersonal ones, but having impersonal ones can be beneficial to us as well. I learned that all relationships serve a purpose to us. Some relationships can be task oriented whereas others may not be task oriented, but more for our own pleasure. I learned that having self knowledge is very important in life. If you ever are faced with a conflict it is essential that you know what kind of ways you typically deal with problems in order to figure out a correct way to approach the situation. It doesn’t hurt to also see what kind of conflict style the person you’re in a conflict with has as well. There are many four positions on a conflict (the pillow method) which can determine how willingly the person can be swayed to compromise on an issue. I learned that I am more of a friend who compromises to avoid conflict and that I can be passive aggressive sometimes. I have friends who act directly aggressive. They say opposites attract but we also look for people who are similar to ourselves. We like people who generally like us too. We did a lot of activities and skits in this class that helped us all be able to relate to the people around us. Being able to put yourself in another person’s shoes can make a world of difference. I feel much more confident in my abilities to mediate between my friends and live my life a little more out of my shell. Lastly, I just want to say, I hope I contributed enough in class and not in a way that created any annoyance. (That was never my intent if I was annoying.) I was always very excited to come to this class and I’ll miss it. My favorite memory from class was probably a tie between when my professor brought her dog to class, (Seriously her dog was so adorable it was prancing around the room and had a smile on its face.) and when we did the fun small group activities.