Entry 6: Listening

Ambushing
I do a lot of ambushing when involved in heated arguments. When I find myself in a bad situation and want to come out as a winner rather than a total upset, I do the ambushing listening. I listen carefully for the flaws, sometimes drawing away from the main issue. With my boyfriend, I do this often. And he's beginning to notice how I totally manipulate our arguments into my advantage. He doesn't know how I do it, and he gets so aggravated that he always turns out as the one at fault, but he's catching this fact.

Selective Listening
Being a grown individual in college, I've learned that this skill does me great during note taking. Selective listening helps me quickly jot down the major idea, and then later go back and extend that thought or learning experience. Sounds simple and effective, but it's really not. Because many times after the class, I don't really go back to read my notes. If I do go back on my notes, I go back to them a day after and by then I'd forgotten the whole point of writing down that 'major idea.' And I take a lot of time out to re-think how I came up with the 'major idea.' Just terrible.

I think that my cousin Claire, is an awesome listener. She is definitely quiet and patient when I'm talking. She waits for me to finish my entire idea, and never tries to get into talking about herself. And she has a great way of showing that she's listening, even though she's a pretty quiet individual. My cousin is really shy, and brief in words. But she's really cool to talk to when you get her talking. She's just got a good approachability about her that shows she's listening.