Tag Archives: feeling

The Power in Listening

By Ellen Yamaguchi

            As a person who enjoys a good, deep conversation, I always put the focus on what I can say or share in a dialogue; however, this past year has taught me the power and the importance of simply listening. As a sophomore this year, I have noticed that I have been the person that my roommates, friends, and even my conversation partners come to whenever they are confronted with a problem. Whether it be a late-night phone call, a spontaneous lunch, or a conversation at Leavey Library, they will begin to talk about what has been bothering them and, through that process, they find peace within themselves. In one of my first sessions with a 1-1 conversation partner, the student was telling me about the difficulties she had within the classroom and speaking up because she did not want to feel the shame of people not understanding what she was saying. I started to sense that the conversation was going to be tough for her, so I asked if she wanted me to give advice or to just listen. She was shocked that I had even asked that because one of the reasons why she was having trouble speaking was because no one would even attempt to just listen to her. People would immediately tell her what she is saying is wrong and correct her as a default response. I then realized that something I thought was natural was actually extremely rare to find in people. A trait that I thought did not carry a lot of meaning actually has a large impact on others. From a single conversation with this student, I decided to strengthen my listening skills and to be engaged with any conversation that I have, whether it is trivial or not. You really do not know the impact that you have on someone’s day, and their single interaction with you might be the turning point of making a bad day into a good one.

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11 Moments Monkeys Accurately Represented My Study Abroad Experience

By Jackie Hernandez

I went to Australia to study abroad but my spirit animal was in Bali. The pictures below will display how my encounters with the erratic and highly volatile macaque monkey species perfectly symbolized my emotional and life altering experience in the land down under.  One quick thing before I get started, some of my more idiomatic expressions are linked to definitions of those terms.  Click on “idiomatic” to understand what I mean.   LET’S BEGIN!

  1. UNANTICIPATED REGRET AND CONFUSION ON THE PLANE.

At first, I was super excited to study abroad, but on the plane from LA to Australia I got a little emotional. I was probably receiving nerve damage to my spine from Fiji Airway’s uncomfortable seats, I was exhausted, and I also had just discovered “Blue” by Beyonce and played it on repeat for the entire flight.

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