Learning Experience #4: Vitality of Relationships

Through all of my course work this semester, my eyes have been consistently opened to the vital importance of relationships. Not only have I begun to see the importance of relationships between people, but also how distinctly our lives are shaped by the relationships we have with our environments, our settings, and even our ideals. As silly as it sounds, relationships are all around us. Whether we take note of it or not, how we interact in our daily lives is essential to our wellbeing and happiness. While I have been studying everything from history to math to sociology, and strategic communications, it seems that in all of these subjects, there is one common theme: relationships. Clearly throughout history, relationships between historical figures, voters, and politicians have drastically shaped the course of our nations path. Even relationships between countries have been noted on each and every page of our history books. In sociology, I learned how drastically one’s life could be altered if he or she is not nurtured by their peers. In Literature and Civilizations, I was even able to learn about the influence of laughter on the relationships we have. In math, we see how the relationships of certain numbers and methods affect the outcome we receive in our answers. Even an unsteady relationship with our environment can cause a stir in our day-to-day lives. For example, taking a test in a new area can be distracting enough to affect the score we receive. To the out of state students, it is apparent that being unfamiliar with their new environment can strongly affect their state of mind, mood, and longing for home. When the streets ice over or the thermometers reach 107 degrees, it is not uncommon for a California native to wish they were in the comfort of their consistent, warm hometown climate. A perfect example of the necessity of relationships is the BLUU. The sweet women that work in the BLUU never hesitate to remember our names or wish us well as we go about our day, and the chefs take the time to fill our tummies each and every meal. Not only that, but no one likes to eat alone, and seeing a familiar face is always refreshing. That is one of the great perks of being a TCU student, within 20 minutes of walking around the campus, one is bound to see someone her or she knows. Relationships are all around us. Furthermore, the likelihood of having a professor multiple times within a major is highly likely; therefore, maintaining strong professor/student relationships can greatly affect not only the wellbeing of the student but also the professor. Without our friends and family just steps away, maintaining trustworthy, dependable relationships with our friends is a necessity. Knowing there are people around we can depend on, particularly when our parents cannot come running, but we simply need someone to confide in. Since the day we stepped foot on campus, we have been preached to about how important it is for us to attend seminars, career nights, and public events in order to make connections with well informed people within our fields of study. The basis of all of these potential connections is relationships. Without relationships with people we know, these potential connections would not be a possibility for us in the first place. If our professors had not related to their fields of study when they were our age, they would not be able to relay their teachings to us today. Our lives are made up of a giant web of relationships. Whether we realize it or not, our past, present, and future are shaped by the people we know, the environments we live in, and the messages and beliefs that have been passed down to us for years and years. It is so important that we foster and nurture these vital relationships, because they will forever change us and the courses our lives will follow.

Laughter Described (#2): Happy Tears

            As I am sure you know, the show the ABC show, The Bachelor, is a hot topic among college age girls. We watch for months and months as the bachelor searches to find his suitor through the most exotic dates in the most beautiful, foreign places. With every season, there are the psycho girls, the sweet girls, and of course, the ones who “fall in love” after date #1 (that’s superiority theory for ya!). It is safe to say that this show would qualify as smut TV and the guilty pleasure we are all ashamed of loving; however, once you become invested in the contestants, it is so hard to turn away. The ratio of contestants who actually stay with the person they pick is very slim, but when it does work out, it feels like a win for all of the viewers. One couple in particular, Sean and Catherine, were the sweethearts of all the seasons to date. They fell in love, abided by traditional moral standards, and truly reflect a couple with their acts together. Over a year ago, Sean proposed to Catherine after having selected her from a group of 25 beautiful women. Because their journey for love was televised, they chose to also televise their wedding. The wedding aired live, and it was one of the most special, intimate ceremonies I had ever seen. Their vows were personal and as touching and memorable as possible. Now, here’s where the fun starts. So, my best friend, Nikki, came home for spring break! I was so excited to get to watch the Bachelor wedding with her. We have been following their love story via social media sense the day the show was complete. I think I should start by saying that, in our lives, it has been wedding central. Suddenly, everyone we know has been getting engaged or married. I don’t exactly know what has happened, but the wedding bug is biting all of our friends and family. With that prefaced, Nikki and I sat down to watch the wedding with my mom. All curled up with a homemade dinner in our laps, the three of us hopeless romantics oooed and ahhhed at all of the wedding bliss. As they begin to exchange their personal vows, I suddenly heard sniffling next to me. The sniffling then turned to full on sobs. Before I knew it, Nikki was erupted in tears! Now, this wasn’t your everyday “oh that’s so sweet” tears. This was as though she was just delivered the most absurdly saddening news of her life. I finally said, “What in the world is going on?” Trying to pull herself together, she explained how happy she was that everyone she knows is finding the person that they are meant to be with. Here we all are on the couch, Nikki is bawling, my mom is frustrated at the TV, and I am trying to balance the two. I have never in my life seen so many emotions in one room. All of the sudden we realized how ridiculous it was, and everyone was erupting into laughter. Things got even funnier as Nikki tried to balance her tears with her laughter. It was like a real life relief theory happening before my eyes. Naturally, my mom and I reach instantly for our cameras to try to capture Nikki’s current state on camera. This was too good to pass up. It’s not often that you see someone bawling their eyes out, while explaining how happy they are. Nikki was so emotional because and it finally hit home how special this time is for so many people that we love. We had just watched the finale of the current season, and we were all fuming mad at the result. Then, to follow it up with the wedding of one of our favorite bachelor couples was apparently just too much for our household to handle. It truly does show how emotions can get the best of you but provide some serious comic relief when things tend to get sappy. All this resulted from an ABC special. After settling all of this extreme laughter and coming back to reality, we all admitted that we would never forget how funny that moment was. Reality TV, sentimental feelings, anger, and happiness sure do result in some unforgettable moments.

So Long, Dear Friend (Conversation #6)

Today was my final conversation session with Essa. I was sad to think that I would no longer be blogging about the conversations and fun experiences that we have had while learning about each other’s lives. On the other hand, I have a found a consistent study buddy throughout this process. Just because my blogging with Essa ends here does not mean that Essa and I’s friendship has to conclude along with it. To start off the day, we deviated to the subject of our favorite TV shows. Being in college, my TV watching is minimal considering the homework that my day-to-day schedule entails; however, Essa happened to bring up one of my favorite shows of all time: Friends. When he said how much he loved Friends, I launched straight into the interesting connection that I have had with the show. Two years ago, I had both of my ankles operated on after being diagnose with a tumor. Coming to the rescue, my best friend bought me the entire set of friends DVD’s, and she watched the episodes with me for hours on end. We would laugh the pain away and sing the theme song at the top of our lungs each time a new episode began. Still to this day, we have not finished all of the episodes, but we are getting there gradually. We then began discussing our favorite characters and why they are so relatable to us. His favorite character is Joey. We both decided that what makes Joey so lovable is his naïve personality and ignorance toward much of the reality that happens around him. Essa informed me that the “Central Perk” coffee shop was created by the show’s producers. The coffee shop still exists today, and New York’s Central Park was the inspiration behind it. Come to find out, Essa also loves going camping. In Saudi Arabia, their idea of camping is largely different from ours. When they go camping, they produce everything from scratch. By this, I am not implying building a fire and making s’mores. In Essa’s family, they even set up their own electrical units for their utilities. Their favorite time of year to camp is spring, because it is the only season when they have blooming flowers. As soon as summer arrives, their surrounding areas turn quickly to sand. All seasons encompass a particularly dry climate, and sand storms are a regular occurrence. He then went on to tell us that they refer to the direction of the wind as “Haboob”. They can typically predict the wind patterns fairly accurately in Saudi Arabia, and this brought me to a story about my step dad. I explained to Essa that my step dad has always considered himself a meteorologist. My mom and I, however, have come to realize that his accuracy is subpar to say the least. Any time he says bundle up we wear tank tops! For Essa, finals are next week. He explained to me that his homework load is so heavy that he rarely has time to sit down and physically study the material, which makes mastering the content quite difficult. Finals week runs Tuesday to Thursday. He began explaining that his wife has struggled with her studying, as it takes her hours and hours to get through her reading. She went to see a doctor and found out that her vitamin D level was low. The doctor prescribed her pills to boost her vitamin D and attention span. When we met with Essa, his family had just boarded the plane to Saudi Arabia. He was sad that they left, but he was happy to know that his daughter would get to spend time with her grandmother and would be starting a new school soon. When she was in the states, Essa’s wife would tell him not to nap on the couch, but we found it hilarious when Essa said that he would “sleep wherever he wants” now that they are gone. Next, Essa showed us a diagram of his family tree. It was an app on his phone that allowed him to input the names and photos of his family members and rearrange them accordingly. It was great to be able to put faces with the names that we had heard so much about. One of his sisters went nine years without having a child and then found out she was having triplets! Next, Essa showed us how to write our names in Arabic. Their written language is extremely complicated and looks more like symbolic pictures than letters. It seemed to be a tough language to learn; however, Essa explained that learning English is just as difficult. Because their letters are very intricate, he says that using a thick edged Sharpie is the best utensil for writing in Arabic. Some portions of the letters are thick; whereas, other parts of the letters require thin, fluid strokes. They have a form of cursive in Arabic similar to that of English writing. One of the things that I appreciate most about Essa is his constant willingness and striving to connect us with his culture. Not only would he give us detailed explanations of his experiences,  but he would not proceed with a story unless he knew we were relating to what he was saying. He made us feel at home in his conversations and just like an addition to his family. I feel that my time with Essa has allowed me to open my eyes to the many cultures that make up Texas Christian University. There is so much to this campus that we are blind to. I will always remember this process as one that has shaped my worldview and allowed me to embrace the diversity within this school. The greatest part is that I have made a new friend out of this awesome journey. I cannot wait to hear more about the adventurous life of my new pal, Essa.