For this assignment, I had to communicate using only kind, true, and useful words for an entire day. I found this assignment harder then the last because I really had to pay attention to what I was going to say and thinking about what I said more then I normally do. My initial thought was that there is no way that I can do this. I'm not saying that I don't say kind, true, and useful words but, they're not always my go-to vocabulary. When I first told my friends about the assignment they suggested that I don't leave my room and just do homework all day, but that defeated the purpose of watching the way I communicate with people. My friends didn't think I could do it and supported me but also made it a lot harder for me. Our communication consists of a lot of sarcasm and jokes so therefore they were using sarcasm around me and with me and I wanted to respond like I normally do in a jokingly way but I couldn't because it wasn't kind, true or useful. My friends and I show our loving relationship of each other by always picking on each other. I decided to pick Saturday as the day that I would practice this form of communication. I thought Saturday would be a good day because I went on a field trip with my Messina to an art museum and I was planning on being with my friends that night so I got to see how I communicated in a outside the classroom setting with my class and how I communicated with my friends.
For my field trip we took the city bus to the Walters Art Museum and it was early on a Saturday morning so I wasn't in the best mood waking up early on my weekend to go on a school field trip. I knew that I had to communicate only using kind useful and true words and I found that it wasn't hard when I was in the art museum because all the art work was beautiful and I had only kind words to talk about it. I found that the people around me on the bus that weren't in my class had a lot of negative things to say. One gentleman said to the bus driver that he had no money and the bus drive said in reply, "No money, no ride." The gentleman laughed and said "Wow man, I was just trying to see where your heart was at, I have money." While witnessing this I realized that this man was testing how other people react and communicate like we are doing right now. After the art museum, my Messina went to Mount Vernon Marketplace to eat. I met a gentleman who was serving me food and he started talking to me and was very funny but everything he said that wasn't useful but he made a good conversation. After this field trip my friends and I decided to go to Eastern State Penitentiary as part of the Options trip offered here at Loyola.
For this trip we were going to a haunted house at the penitentiary. This was going to be the biggest challenge for me because when I get scared I tend to say unkind, untrue, and not useful vocabulary. When we arrived I was looking at my phone while walking and a character saw I was distracted and decided it was a good idea to scare me, obviously I wasn't prepared and got very scared I screamed and wanted to say some very unkind words but I bit my tongue and moved on. This happened multiple times during my time at the haunted penitentiary and I realized that what we say and how we communicate is very dependent on how we feel. If we feel happy and are in a really good mood we are more likely to be kind and truthful. If we feel scared or threatened we use more colorful vocabulary and are more likely to be rude or unkind.
Overall this experience gave me a new sense of how we communicate. Before I thought we only communicated through the use of technology but I found that we communicate based on how we feel also. When I feel like being quiet or not actually having a conversation with someone I communicate through the use of technology but otherwise I will have a conversation with anyone who wants to talk.
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