This week I had a conflict between my friend and I. She has been one of my best friends for 6 years. We do everything together. We are extreme opposites she is crazy and I am very relaxed.

Over the weekend I went to hang out with my guy friends. We normally hang out just the three of use and my friend Melanie is always fine with that cause we were a group first. We went out for the nightly drive and didn’t care but the next morning we went out shooting guns and she was extremely made because she was not invited and she loves shooting guns. Instead of resolving the conflict she want to be passive aggressive towards the situation. I on the other hand wanted to confront it head on. I can stand the present of conflict I normally use the avoidance(McCornack pg.267) skill but not with my best friend I was upset she was mad at me and wanted to resolve the problem.

I confronted her and used my amazing communications skills that I learned from this class and communicated my feelings and she communicate hers about the conflict that need to be resolved. Thankfully throughout the resolution she did not use any sudden death statements because in all of the arguments I have seen her be a part of that is her go to line of defense.(McCornack pg 277)

The solution to our conflict we decided was to accommodate(McCornack pg 267) if she was feeling left out to tell me and I would included her more when planning activities. We are both girls so according to gender roles in conflict were able to constructly resolve our agreement and we are still best friends.

Throughout the week I was working with my client. I has been having a really hard time communicating with the family memebers of the client. They are from Russia and don’t speak the best English. I have been having to use “communication accommodation theory, people are especially motivated to adapt their communication when they seek social approval, when they wish to establish relationships with others, and when they view others’ language use as appropriate “(pg 140)

There is so many cultural barriers between us and the family. We have had to really learn about their culture and use world mindfulness to understand what is appropriate in their culture. Especially when it comes to giving gifts and food. Every time we go over they keep offering us gifts and food at first we were not able to accept because of company policy but we talked to our supervisor and they approved of us taking some gifts or food because it was becoming really awkward between us and almost coming off as rude. Now that we are able to accept something it is had because I have lots of problems with food that I accept but sometimes get sick but I would rather get sick then disrespect their culture. Through learning about their culture, we have learned so much. I even know some words in Russian. I also learned that babies and small children takes naps outside for good disposition.

” Intercultural competence, the ability to communicate appropriately, effectively, and ethically with people from diverse backgrounds.”(pg. 138) I has been difficult at times to understand each other and work cooperatively to meet the needs of the child but some how we are making it work. This has been such an eye open experience getting to know them and their culture. I want to go visit Russia now and use all the new words that I have learned.

In 2017 I met my boyfriend Alex at a graduation party for a family friend. When I first met him we were in the initiating stage.(McCormick and Morrison 300) After a couple hours of spending time together everyone at the party could tell that there was a reciprocal liking between the both of us.( McCormick and Morrison 297) We continued to talk and hang out and the second we left that party we look each other on social media accounts and stayed in contact. This is a new form of communication we have developed over the decades. If not for this form of communication we probably would not be together. This led to a group date shortly after. We started to really connect and became best friends. All of our friends liked us together and our feelings for each other became even stonger the long we bonded.(McCormick and Morrison 300)

After some time of hang out we started to date and fell madly in love with each other. All of his interests became my interests and the other way around. We just always wanted to be together. The friendship was so strong that the relationship became even stronger.

We went through many milestones together: two graduations, three proms, new job, new schools, military training, moving and many more adventures and I wouldn’t want anyone else by my side. Throughout the years relational maintenance is hard, we are constantly trying new things to stay engaged with each other. We also constantly trying to have meaningful conversations. Technology has been a huge part of our relationship. For almost a year now he has been in active duty in Oklahoma and Arizona, without the use of facetime, texting, social media, and other forms of electronic communications we would not have been able to stay together this long.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.