Once you have written your paragraph, you are to respond to two ofyour peers’ paragraphs in at least 100 words each.In your reply, respond to all 5 parts in your peer’s initial post,making sure to explain what you relate to and your judgment about yourpeer’s experience with emotion In order to respond to a peer, you mustfirst write your own paragraph. You will only be able to see yourclassmates’ work after you have submitted your own post.

Classmate 1 :

1. Thespeaker, Susan David, greets the audience with the word “sawubona” whichtranslates to hello. The literal translation, however, is a little morecomplex as it means “I see you, and by seeing you, I bring you intobeing.” This literal translation speaks more to the importance of thisword as it truly acknowledges the other’s presence and communicates thatthey respect and understand the interaction. Pertaining tointerpersonal communication I think this word conveys the acceptance ofthe other and starts the conversation in a respectful and acknowledgingsense due to the literal translation of “I see you and bring you intobeing.” By telling someone you “bring them into being” you are acceptinga conversation and interaction rather than just a polite peasantry.
2. I was bornwith a heart defect and have had multiple surgeries throughout my life.I don’t remember that part of my childhood as much but as I’ve gottenolder I realized the seriousness of my health which even though nothinghas changed too much, some of the surgeries are still ‘new’ to mebecause I don’t remember what it was like years ago. I suppose havingsurgery is the best example of my courage. I don’t actually get scaredof not making it out rather of the process of going under and leaving myfamily. It’s a really trippy feeling and I have never really adjustedto it, even after 19 years of it.
3. Deadpeople’s goals are to “never get inconvenienced by their feelings”.Goals of never going through stress, discomfort, despair, or any otherunwanted or ‘negative’ emotion. Only with all emotions can one achieve ameaningful life, and if you don’t accept these other emotions as wellas the ‘positive’ ones, you have dead people’s goals.
4. I amsomeone who tends to hold in negative emotions because I don’t likesharing those types of emotions with others. Particularly sadness, forme, is the emotion that I keep to myself the most. I am a very happyperson generally, and I especially stay happy around friends or extendedfamily. I suppose I feel as though it is no one else’s business to knowwhat is bothering me if it doesn’t affect them. I’m a private person asis my immediate family, which I think is the reason we generally onlyshare our true ‘negative’ emotions with each other. Now I don’t wantthis to seem as though I am fake around people because that isn’t trueeither. I really am a generally genuinely happy person and I tend tohave a very positive personality, and I love to laugh and smile. I justdon’t like sharing when I am sad because I get self conscious about itand if other people know I’m sad then it makes me shove it away more.However when I can feel sad on my own I can embrace it and get it out,in a sense. I don’t really like pity or feeling weak and even though Iknow being sad doesn’t mean you are weak I prefer to keep it to myself. Ilove life and personally don’t like being sad but every once and awhile we all need a good cry or sad moment.
5. I don’tthink positivity is a tyrannic emotion however I know that keeping‘negative’ emotions in is not good. I think working on trust with otherswill help the most with embracing those particular emotions. However,in general I am happy nine times out of ten and I owe that to my familyand my faith in God. I’m a Christian and instead of feeling sad overeverything that doesn’t seem fair or go the way I wanted, I think of allthe blessings I and my family and community have been given and itreally does make me genuinely happy instantly. I truly love life and Ilive by the phrase “life happens” and through the support of my familyand my faith I can be positive throughout my life’s journey. Everyemotion is important but I wouldn’t be able to survive the past 19 yearswithout positivity and happiness which is why I value it the most.

Classmate 2

1. Sawubona means “hello” or “I see you”. I believe that acknowledging that you see someone in is important because it is the basis of communication, if we do not look at or acknowledge someone when we are talking to them then our words are meaningless. Looking at someone when we are speaking to them implies that we have respect for that person and helps let the person know that you are speaking to them directly. I also believe that if people feel seen then they are more inclined to listen to what you are saying.

2. A time that I can recall being courageous was when I was at workand a few of the people that work under me were complaining because theyfelt like the people that were working in the morning day-part werebeing over worked and we needed more labor added during that time tohelp make the work load even. Everyone expressed their annoyance to mebut was too nervous to take it to my manager as he has a record ofsaying “too bad, figure it out” or “there is nothing I can do”. After aparticularly difficult shift I finally got the courage to ask him for alabor investment during our day part and explained the situation to him.He had asked how many people spoke to me about it and said he would adda labor investment on the agreement that we pushed to make our AM saleshigher, I agreed and was able to get more labor and increase the amountof customers we get in the morning by 50. Everyone was really glad wegot the labor investment and my manager even thanked me for speaking upfor our morning crew.

3. Dead people’s goals are wanting to stop feeling unwanted feelingsor emotions or feelings and emotions that we view as an inconvenience toour lives.

4. I tend to repress a lot of my negative emotions. I have actuallybeen in therapy for this for a while because it had gotten so bad that Iwasn’t recognizing my feelings in the moment and would eventually lashout at someone I love or am close to. I also had a hard timeunderstanding or finding the cause of a certain emotion and found itreally difficult to try and explain why I was feeling a certain way so Ijust resorted to repressing everything until I had a weekly or monthlyemotional blowout where I seemed to feel everything at once. I have beenworking really hard on identifying my emotions and remembering it isokay to not understand why I feel a certain way, I have also been a lotmore open with the people in my life that I am close with about myemotions.

5. I plan on reminding myself what Susan David said in her talk”Discomfort is the price of admission for a meaningful life.” As wellas, reminding myself that it is okay to feel negative or uncomfortableemotions because they will not last forever.