Communication is hard. It’s hard to learn, it’s hard to master, it’s hard to effectively do. It requires work and determination. Discipline and hard work are necessary for it to be effective.
Communication, even though it’s hard, is a necessary part of life. We use it every day. Waving at someone to go ahead of you, smiling at a stranger, talking to your mom and high-fiving your best friend are all ways to communicate. Spoken and unspoken.
You don’t really appreciate how much communication matters until you hit higher education. When you go into a communications degree, you learn about all facets of the topic. You learn about theories and facets of communication, and it really puts all of them into perspective, especially how important they are.
It’s important, is all I’m trying to say.
It matters how you talk to people. I saw something somewhere that said, “We don’t owe anybody anything but empathy.”
This stands out to me because empathy is your tone and your words. How you show you care and relate to someone in a tough spot. How you show that you have love for someone and that you want them to be the best they can be. I have had my trials and tribulations with communication. I still have issues, but what matters is that I care about the people around me enough to want to be better for them.
I’ve been that mean girl, and I’ve been her victim. One day, a switch flipped on me and I wanted to be better. I learned how to talk to people. I’m still learning how to talk to people.
Recently I have had a learning curve between me and someone else. We communicate differently. That’s okay, even though it feels like it’s not. It throws you for a loop when you can’t get your point across without creating conflict. But that’s just the thing. There is always going to be some sort of conflict. Small or large, conflict is there. That is okay. What matters is how you handle that. How you respond. Do you yell, cry or listen? There are obviously more options but I can’t list every reaction here. I’d be here all night. Either way, it matters how you respond. If you’re like me and want to be better at communicating, you have to figure out what works best for each situation. Spoiler alert, anger is ninety percent of the time the wrong answer.
Communication is a forever-changing field of study and one that you will never stop learning. With slang and media, you never know what to expect next. With that in mind, I don’t expect everybody to be an expert in how to communicate. I expect people to want to learn how. I expect people to want to be better for themselves and the people that they’re around.
In short, mind how you speak to those around you and respect that communication is a larger part of your life than you realize.
