Upon entering the Group Communications class with Sarah Taylor, I was a bit skeptical to be quite frank. Having done Theatre and Forensics throughout high school, I was pretty sure that I knew how to stand in front of an audience and give a prepared monologue, or in this case, a prepare speech. After a semester of being in this interesting and eye-opening class with Sarah Taylor, I now realize that there is still much to be learned. Through the discovery of my own strengths, my leadership in a group, and the knowledge necessary to work together with others, I, Layne Rickabaugh, would love to share my experience in SCOM 123.
Coming into Group Communications, I knew what some of my strengths as a speaker were right off the bat. For my whole life, I understood how loud of a voice I have and how when I am trying to speak to a crowd of people, I can often times command the audience. Because of my prior experience in the art of Theatre, I had the idea of projection on a stage practically beaten into me by my directors. Another one of my strengths that I knew that I possessed was the ability to write coherent and often times interesting pieces of work. I had been commended for being able to put my ideas on a sheet of paper and convey it to an audience in high school, so I had very little worry about being able to do the same at a college level. While this second strength of mine turned out to be a difficult one to adjust to with the new level of writing expected at a college level, I believe that this class helped me to focus on key words and phrases to put emphasis on. Moreover, I think this class taught me to take that last extra look at my work and time myself so that I can get rid of all of the minutia I often keep in there. It’s good to think that during this course not only my weaknesses evolved, but my strengths did as well.
Some of the things that I was not very strong in were the things that I evolved in the most during this course. For starters, I was never really fond of working in a group. When signing up for classes, I remember feeling pretty bummed out that I would not be able to just do solo presentations. Working with other people meant there was always the possibility that I was going to be doing the majority of the work. Working with other people turned out to very enjoyable. Although I was often some sort of leader at many points during the semester, I was able to learn the importance of my group member’s ideas.
During the persuasive essay portion, had not Gabby typed up a new outline of the speech, we may not have ever spaced out our time. Abby had many ideas and contributed many movie clips to the Matilda project that I simply had not thought about. The passion that Madison put into her portion about why the Syrian refugees should enter the United States left me shocked; I had never, at the beginning of the semester, expected her of all people to be someone passionate about… well politics! And James, the man with a lisp, with a stutter, and with low self-esteem shocked me with the brilliance and often times necessary simplicity in his ideas. Having had developed a stutter after playing ‘Bertie’ from my adaptation of The Kings Speech for Forensics, I was able to help him boost his confidence and give a brilliant James-style speech about the mass number of Syrian refugees. Overall, I not only learned how to get along with other people in my group, but I had the privilege to watch others grow and get involved in astonishing and amazing ways.
As the semester begins to end, I realize that maybe one of the things I need to continue to work on as a speaker is listening to the ideas of others. 5 brains are most certainly better than just my lousy 1, and every person has thoughts and desires that they want to communicate to the audience. I know that I will have to work with groups for the rest of college and most certainly for the rest of life, so I will continue to work on listening to the contributions of other people.
You’ve by now seen my photo for sure. In my hand I hold Professor/ Sensei Sarah Taylor’s favorite breakfast cereal, “Honey Bunches of Oats® with Almonds.” Why do I hold this photo as my symbolization of this semester? Look at the cereal. It has honey, oats, those weird flaky things, milk, and of course, almonds. These are all ingredients that seem weird to be put together and taste fine when eaten by themselves, but surprisingly work well together when combined. I think if there’s anything that I take away from SCOM 123 it’s this: that sometime the people you work with aren’t the people you’re stuck with. If you give them some time, you may find that the combination makes for a rather delicious breakfast cereal.
Cordially,
Layne S. Rickabaugh