Ajourning the journey

Blog Week 6

I think if we go by the definition of “two or more who share some of the same kind of relationships” (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012) my hardest group to say good bye to was my college friends.  We were not high performing, but we had a pattern to our relationships to the school and to each other that to me was a good fit.  Our norming stages was a natural progression and we established a pattern of in and out of school, such as our breaks and then we would come back and fall right back into our routine.  When we were in school none of us had cell phones and there were very few long distance calls between us, the teachers did not email assignments and updates, and little commination during the breaks. I think this was the hardest to leave because we were really developing who we were and talking about what our future held. A few of us had a party after graduation and I wish that there had been more of us present.  My senior year in college I had friend to lose her fiancée, one to get married and several to move away.  It was an emotional year for us all.  With my group of mater’s colleagues, it will be different with each class you look for familiar names and notice the new ones. I think I will wonder what they have moved on to do, and wish us all well. But with everything we have to finish and move on, meaning we have come to the end of another journey.  A job well done and we move out to help more people. 

Can We Work It Out?

Do all conflicts have a solution?  Many times I have come to the conclusion that you have to say,” we have to agree to disagree. “This does not work in all matters, so we have to have conflict skills to help us out.  The first step for me is to try and start with the Three R’s, respect, make it reciprocal, and be responsive to our needs.  I have a birthday coming up and have two friends that are married, one wants to do an all- girls weekend, the other wants to include her husband.  If we go all girls we can share a room and talk about old times, if the husbands come all of this changes. We now have a plan to place on the table, and I got the ideal from reading Conflict Resolution Network.  Options number one- all husbands stay home, it’s a girl weekend, option number two, we all go and the husband has to spend one of our week nights without his wife.  This is a way for all of us to win, we get our night, and she gets her husband alone for one night.  This way we also respect her marriage, we get to have our time, and everyone gets a weekend away.   

Things To Work On

I was surprised that the test could pin point who I think I am so well.  The test also showed that I am doing okay in letting people see who I am.  There are times when I know that I am to empathic and may make a bad call from doing that.  I have got to work harder on becoming a better listener. I am a situational communicator; I agree with the findings on this also, it really depends on the context and the environment in how I will feel about speaking in front of a crowd. I wonder if anyone else was as surprise about the way your scores came out and what the people who worked with you said about who you are. I learned that I am not a bad listener, but I want to work more on keeping attuned.  Acknowledging my weakness and working on making them better will make me a better person at home and at work.  If I become a better speaker I may be able to help more people and grow a little bit more.    Hope that we all little surprises and bits of insights!