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Drava Knabe

Melissa Leembruggen

Comm. 2206.105

3, December 2018

Why you take a Communications Class

As a nursing student I always questioned the reason why I had to take a communication

class. I now know why that was, and I have never been so interested in a class in my entire life. I

enjoy the nursing classes of course, but there was something about this class that can be applied

to every aspect of your life. The nursing classes will only do you good in the hospital settings.

Communication however can be applied anywhere, in every relationship, and every interaction.

You can relate to everything you learn in this class to an experience or you will eventually

experience something like this. This class truly has taught me a lot about myself as a person, as a

girlfriend, as a family member, and as a friend. I now understand why it has to be taken by

almost every major. This class teaches you how to communicate better and I feel like it has truly

helped me.

The first lesson I took and applied to my life was I statements. I statements help the

person better understand what you are upset about, why you’re upset about it, and what the

person can do to make it better. It helps de-escalate the situation, rather than escalate it. It makes

the person you are talking to not feel threatened or defensive. It teaches you that you are the only

one that can change yourself. No one can make you do something, you choose how you react to

something. This class has really taught me that you are only in control of yourself. You cannot

make someone do something, and someone cannot make you do something. The only things
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you are responsible for are you, and yourself. I have learned that I statements are the best way to

express yourself and the way you feel about something. It makes the atmosphere calm, and it

creates healthier relationships in the long run. It makes both you and the person you are having

conflict with happier. It doesn’t create as much tension. I have used I statements with my

boyfriend and best friend a few times. Every time I used one the atmosphere was calm, and we

both understood each other better. I have used I statements to dissolve conflict that would usually

cause an uproar in the past. I used to start every argument with “you made me do this” or “you

made me mad.” When in reality that was incorrect because I made myself feel that way. It has

helped them understand me better and vise versa. I really took a lot from this lesson as it seemed

to make connections stronger in my relationships.

The second lesson I took from this class is how I express my body language and my tone

of voice. Proper welcoming body language includes things such as eye contact, smiling, head

nodding, open arms, and good body posture. Your tone of voice can lighten or darken the mood

of the conversation. The tone of voice and body language together or separate can change the

whole context of the words you are saying. There is a saying that says “actions speak louder than

words.” I didn’t think that was true in every scenario until I took this class and it made me

understand why that saying is so popular. I really do believe actions speak louder than words. I

realized this when I was told people at my job were scared to come up to me at work. They said i

had something called RBF (resting bitch face). I tended to keep to myself when I first started

working there, I am a rather shy person until you break me out of my shell. They described me as

intimidating, too pretty to be nice, that I was stuck up. They said all this based off my body

language. I feel like that is what made the biggest impact on them, and that is the reason they
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refused to talk to me first. After all of this happened and I approached them first we all became

the best of friends.

The last lesson I found important to me was the fact that everyone takes the negative out

of a situation more than the positive. I never knew why this was true, but I have personally

experienced it myself. I learned through this class that the reason everyone takes negativity out

of situations more than positive is because there is a huge amount of emotions that are negative.

There are very few different emotions that are positive. There are more ways to feel negative

about a situation than positive. I just thought that that was nature but it can be somewhat

described as this. I have always been the type of person to only focus on the negative. Through

this class however, it has taught me so much about why I focus on the negative things more. I am

sure there is more to the reason most people are like that but this gave me a common

understanding.

Though this class can sometimes be hard to follow, understanding all of this class as a

whole is rewarding. Attending all the classes I possibly could was rewarding. I learned a lot

about myself and the people around me through this class. Every day that I attended it always

caught my attention and I was excited to learn what was happening that day. I used to not know

how to express my feelings, and I was uncomfortable expressing them. Through this class

however, I have learned a lot about myself and a lot about the people around me. I have learned

to understand others, and myself better. This class has truly taught me so much about myself and

the people around me.