iExam 2- Lauren Masino

 This iExam was definitely more challenging than the last one. I would not have thought this one would take so much thought and effort as it did. Making sure that everything I said, in person, texts or online, is kind, useful and true was very trying. I found that it can be very easy to always be saying something with one of these aspects, but involving all three is much more difficult. It took a lot of concentration every time I spoke. 

Ever since I was young, I had been taught to be kind. It is now just in my nature to always say things with kindness. This was probably the easiest part of the assignment. Being honest was probably the next easiest part, as I was also taught to not lie. The only times I found myself thinking about not telling the truth was when I was trying to protect someone’s feelings about the way they were acting. Lastly, being useful was probably the part I had to focus on the most. I feel that we often talk just to talk, and most of the things we say have very little meaning and usefulness to them. 

Focusing on each part separately was relatively easy, but putting them together was the real challenge. For example, I had found that I was in a position where I had to be truthful to one of my suitemates about giving her a bit of a reality check.  It was challenging to be totally honest with her, without hurting her feelings and not sounding harsh with little kindness. Although this also had good intentions of being useful for her, it still was hard to have it come off as kind. This was a main example, showing me how difficult it is to balance these three aspects while communicating. 

Overall, I found my communication was different as I took a lot longer to speak, with the idea of thinking of all three of these things before talking. I also noticed that I talked a lot less, realizing that a lot of things I tend to say are just random thoughts in my head and not necessarily useful. Although these thoughts are kind and truthful, I found they were quite useless to those around me. 

This humours me a bit as I realized I tend to babble a lot. I'm sure to some people this can be entertaining for them, but it also made me realize that some people probably don’t want to necessarily hear that I think baby seals are adorable, or that I had a dream about rafting down a river. This also made me notice though that I tend to say these useless things when there is a lul in a conversation, and to keep it going and move onto a new topic of discussion. 

Although it was difficult to have these three aspects of kindness, truthfulness and usefulness in everything I had spoken that day, it was definitely interesting to try and do it for a day. I was happy to notice that it was not difficult to be kind and truthful, which I feel are the two more important parts.