The Final Blog

The chapter that I related to most in my life was interpersonal communication.  I know I will benefit from the skills we learned in this area.  Learning about dyadic communication was very helpful to me because I am constantly trying to improve my interpersonal skills.  The more spontaneous and relaxed a conversationalist you are, the more confident you feel and I believe you are more appealing for others to be around when mastering this skill.  I can really relate and agree with many of the theories in interpersonal communication.  The Social Penetration Theory is one of my favorites, because I believe that the deeper your relationship with someone, the more cohesive you become.  The many facets of yourself that make up the whole” onion” analogy really compare to the breadth of the relationship, and on how deep of a level you are on with someone in many different areas of your life reflects on your relationship with that person.  Another favorite theory of mine is the Duck’s Filtering theory.  The imaginary strainer that filters out acquaintances, qualities you like or do not like in friends or mates, and finally the few that make it to the bottom of the filter.  These few represent your most close friends and loved ones.  I strongly agree with this theory and can relate because I have a few very close friends, but many friends and acquaintances that would be caught somewhere on one of the filter’s upper levels.  Interpersonal communication is so interesting because I believe it is why we live life.  Without personal interaction there truly would be no reason to get out of bed in the morning.  We thrive on communication, we communicate with the people we care about most interpersonally, that is why I find interpersonal communication to be the most relatable topic we have studied.

A Conversation with a Stranger

  I work at a tanning salon.  I work at the front desk and set people in tanning units, advise them on products, and consult them about tanning time to avoid overexposure.  At my job, I am constantly talking to people I do not personally know.  Striking up conversations with strangers and sometimes listening to the life stories of my customers is something I do on a daily basis.  I recently had a very interesting conversation with a middle aged woman whom I had never met before.  I asked her if she was tanning for anything specific since I saw she had only purchased two weeks of tanning.  She informed me that she was going on a cruise with her daughter.  This woman was particularly friendly, so I remarked how lovely it must be to have some mother daughter bonding time.  She then disclosed to me just how much she needed this vacation, for in the past year she lost her husband to cancer.  She told me how sick he was for such a long time.  He could not eat anything, he was in excruciating pain, and how it hurt her so deeply to watch him suffer.  She told me she was with him until the end, and as she the tears began to fill in her eyes she said, “I know he is in a better place now.”  I told this sweet woman that I could empathize with the pain she must have felt because I continue to watch my best friend deal with losing her mother to breast cancer this past summer.  I also remarked about how courageous she was that she has such a bright personality and keeps smiling through her pain.  Shortly after I closed the conversation, and told her to go tan and relax.  In my opinion you learn a lot from talking with a stranger.  It helps us feel connected and know that we are not alone.  It helps us form our self image and sometimes can help put things in perspective.  You never know what you may learn from an interpersonal encounter like this, and how you may make a positive impact on someone’s life.

Student Debt at Kutztown University

  My group posed the research question, "What is the financial situation of students’ regarding college expenses?"  We wanted to get an assessment of how much debt students were in, how much aid or scholarships they receive, and how concerned they are about their future debts.  We thought of this question because it is a problem that nearly every student will face in college.
  What we found was that overall, students are pretty concerned about the debt they will face upon graduation.  Many students are estimating they will owe approximately $10,000 after they graduate.  In general, most students do receive some type of financial aid or grants for school.  Although financial aid may be a temporary relief, students will need to pay that money back eventually.  Student scholarships and grants are much better to receive because they will not have to be paid back in the future.
  Many students said they were unsure or did not respond at all to some of the questions we posed, and I believe this is due to the fact that some (or perhaps many) of the students surveyed were freshman.  I believe to have an accurate assessment of the students at Kutztown, we would need a random sample of freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  The amount of debt a freshman thinks he or she will be in upon graduation could be significantly less than that of a senior who knows the exact dollar amount they will owe when receiving their diploma.
  Besides getting a different sample of students, I would change one of the questions we posed in our survey.  We asked "How much debt do you expect to be in after graduation?" the choices were: a. $1,000 or less b. $5,000 or less c. $10,000 or less or d. $20,000 or more.  We got a comment from one student that wanted to know which answer to choose if they thought they would be in around $15,000 of debt.  I realized that we had not thought this question through, and that we should have made choice d. $20,000 or less, and created a choice e. $20,000 or more.
  Besides a few errors I found our survey to be very enlightening and insightful into the world of student debt.  It is a very hard reality to face, and for some the struggle can be excruciating.  Students today need to choose whether to go to college and spend years paying back loans and aid, or to just jump right into the workforce.  This can be one of the most challenging decisions for a young adult, and I believe some people graduate still not knowing if they have made the right decision.