Communication

    Without communication, we as humans would not be able to function with other people at all. When I think of communication the first thing that comes to mind, and probably your mind too, is communicating through words. What I think is really cool, and people tend to often forget about, is there are so many different ways to communicate. Subconsciously when we are around people, our brain is basically taking mental notes about how the people around us are acting. We can automatically tell if someone is uncomfortable just by the way they are sitting. We can also tell when someone is upset or angry by their body language. Another example of communication is through sign language. It is really interesting to me how people who can not hear have a really cool way of still communicating. 

    When we think about communication in a relationship, that is where it can become a little bit tricky for some people. When I looked up the top reasons why couples break up, it is more than likely because of a lack of communication. When there is a miscommunication in a relationship, more often than not, no one thinks that they miscommunicated. This can lead to even more miscommunication and, in the long run, ruin a relationship. President Harold B. Lee once said, “you must communicate so clearly, you can not be misunderstood.” I like this because even if you think that you are explaining it clearly, you never know if someone can understand you. I also like this because it gives us a chance to work on our talking with people and teaches people to think before they speak in certain situations.

    While our world has been going through COVID-19 for the last two years, it has really changed us in ways that you might not have realized. For introverted people, it was really great because people couldn’t be around other people. For extroverts, on the other hand, they weren’t able to socialize and we all had to start living in this new normal. I can personally say that after things started to open back up, it was a lot harder to talk to people face-to-face than it was before the pandemic. Before the outbreak, I didn’t like talking to new people because it made me nervous, but after things opened back up, my social anxiety got A LOT worse. I found myself never wanting to go out in public without a face mask on because I didn’t like when people could see my entire face. It almost made me develop a new way to be “vulnerable” which makes no sense considering it’s my face. I had to get back into the swing of living my previous normal life. There have been many different occasions in this semester alone when I have pulled down my face mask to take a drink of water and people in my classes have said “Woah you look different than how I expected you to look” or “that’s not what I was expecting.” It’s just crazy to me that this has drastically changed how people communicate and how they interact with others. 

    This has really opened my eyes to the importance of communication not just in a relationship but in our everyday lives. It is really important that we practice our communication skills before we get into a relationship. Even in a friendship, it is important to know how to be a good listener. In return, people will like talking to you better. Like I mentioned earlier, without communication we would crumble as a whole and wouldn’t be able to function.