Blogging for Communication journey

Like most people, I like having friends. I like being able to connect with people that have similar interests and I like to share experiences with them. Doing that gives me a sense of contentment that I rarely feel when I am by myself. However, a problem I have experienced for most of my life is anxiety, both general and social. With that in mind, it is often hard for me to make friends beyond a few people, and I end up being quite close with them as a result. Even though it doesn’t do me much good, I envy people who can be friends with everyone and anyone. To me, it just seems like it would take such a massive amount of energy to be able to achieve that. I guess in that respect, I am glad that I don’t have the energy to do that. It allows me to learn my limitations and keep me grounded. The friendships I have are referred to as agentic friendships, which involves being friends, but we often have other things we view as more important to take care of before we see each other (chapter 1...

  One of the most notable things that I have observed throughout my life is that families come in many different forms. Growing up as an only child, I was used to the concept that families consisted of a mother, father, and a child. Then at some point I learned that families sometimes have more than one child and that the original couple does not always remain married. Beyond that, I learned that sometimes couples don’t always consist of a man and a woman and that they can be same-sex or gender. While all of these families are different in some ways, the commonality is that when they have kids, they all have their own unique way of parenting. I learned recently that family is pluralistic, which means that there is very little preventing us from what we talk about together and that there is no pressure to act in a certain way and we can be ourselves around each other (chapter 12, pg. 335). Growing up with lifestyle, it was surprising to learn that many of my friends and classmates t...