IExamen 2

Natalya Pulaski

March 12, 2013

EN 101.17

IExamen 2

            Going into the second IExamen I had limited expectations as to what the experience would be like.  The focus of this IExamen was being aware of how kind, true and useful your words were to others.  In comparison to the first IExamen, throughout the the experience I reflected on what it means to have kind, true and useful words.  I think it’s often hard for people to address these three categories, because often people might not think about the consequences behind their words or how important their tone can be.

            Throughout my day I felt assured that my actions were kind to others because of my nature.  Going into the experience, I already knew that as a person I always try to be genuine to others.  The kindness aspect of the IExamen did not seem to be the trouble for me.  Interestingly, what I found to be one of the biggest struggles during the day was using useful words.  Words, especially tone and how we express our words, deeply impacts our friends, family, teachers and all who we know and love.  I think it was hard to be put in a position to have to logically think about each word and ensure that each one was useful to the people that you were talking to.  Before thinking about and participating in this IExamen, I felt that I had little time to mentally think about the usefulness of my own words to others.  However, through this experience I was able to more fully emerge myself and come to realize the importance of usefulness of our language.  Each time I had a conversation with one of my friends or my professors I felt that my words were useful. 

            Additionally, I felt that the truth aspect of the assignment was interesting to address. I found that I had the intentions of saying everything true before talking to people.  However, because I am often a sarcastic and humorous person, I felt that this sometimes stood in my way, without even being fully being aware of it at first.  Truth is something that is extremely important to me in any relationship or friendship.  I believe that truth can illustrate to others how genuine you are as a person and also tests your ability to communicate in a relationship.  Throughout my day, I tried to focus on how true my words were.  The times where I felt I was not being truthful tended to occur when I was trying to be humorous or sarcastic.  However, what I noticed was each time I was sarcastic I always backed myself up and told the person I was kidding, or they already new that I was a sarcastic person.

            During this experience I learned the importance of  kindness, truthfulness and usefulness.  Often it’s surprising to see how people react to situations when they are told beforehand to not only focus on how to communicate with others but test their abilities to be vulnerable to others.  I believe in this generation people sometimes stray from kindness, truth and usefulness because talking to someone has become seemingly second nature to us.  Often times I think people are simply desensitized to certain situations and just say what ever they are feeling.  Often times, people may not realize how their words will affect those around them.   I found that it was often easier to speak to those I felt I could speak the truth to and not hold back.  I think it is important that both people in the conversation are truthful, kind and aware of their usefulness.  I have learned that often one comment or way something says something can influence you in a strong way.