Hope
Demi Lewis
LDS Business College

Hope requires faith and faith requires action, life can seem hard and unjust sometimes but never stop hoping. Learn to follow your heart and be brave no matter the circumstance. Heavenly Father is on your side. This semester came and went in a blink of an eye, but as it did I was changed along the way. Since the first day of class I thought I was comfortable and confident in who I was becoming as an individual. Although as naturally imperfect beings we can be wrong sometimes. I was wrong this time, the person I was becoming was not constantly aware of the way other people felt when communicating. As one of my weaknesses I tend to judge group settings and make an overall assumption they all feel the same way. Yet this class taught me differently, it taught me that although some people in the group can feel a certain way, not all. Through the semesters’ teaching’s I am now able to read these situations much clearly now. Also I appreciated getting to know everyone s strengths it made me help to look outside of the individual I was talking to and more in depth to who they are. It made me look at them and understand why they were feeling that way. I even began to use it outside of school, to wonder what strengths they had and maybe that's why we clashed. This class has taught me a great deal of looking at an individual carefully and understanding them first before making assumptions. The strengths test gave me much insight into who I was and why I was the person I am. Yet it wasn’t only the strengths test that gave me greater insight it was the presentations, evaluations and tests we were given inside this class. I learned through this class specifically that being confident in who I am helps me tell my story with hope and conviction. Often, people can tell when a person is feeling self conscious and when that is lacking people tend to get away from that negative feeling. When I am being myself and telling that story the only way I know I can. I have seen my point get across no matter what it is. When I am acting on confidence people listen more effectively and enjoy listening. I enjoy being confident and the days where I lack that confidence is the day I have the worst communication. The best way to describe it is, when I talk to a really cute guy and once my confidence begins to lack all I can say is “Hi” and then smile like a weirdo. This is an example of poor communication and if I were to tell my story to him there would be no way to effectively get across any hope or conviction. Overall, I have learned that through confidence I can always display hope and conviction powerfully in any story. Hope is such a powerful word, we need it often in our lives. Whether life being going good or bad, hope is still required. This class has offered me ripples of hope in my life by making me see that people are not so bad. I tend to fall victim of caring too much of what people think. Before this class I always thought that when people gossip or say mean things it is because they are just simply mean people. Then, I get into this class and began to learn what makes these people, not people but individuals. I began to get to know them personally and to question why they were thinking the way they did. Going back to the strengths test it made a huge impact on the way I see people and myself. I look at them and while they are communicating their thoughts I see their strengths and then I begin to realize why we clash. People are not people, they are unique individuals with stories and traits that make them who they are. The hope that was given to me has made my life better. I no longer hold small, insignificant grudges against anyone anymore for saying what they have said when it offended me. It is a great blessing to no longer care what people think about me. Those are their thoughts and thoughts can be changed and outlooks as well. Being an effective communicator requires much more then speaking. It requires an emotional intelligence, speaking and body language. When it comes down to it, I know I can communicate well. I see myself making friends, starting conversations, engaging an audience and understanding social environments. Having “woo” as my number two in my top five strengths made me understand why I can communicate effectively. The “woo” strength gives me the ability to have a good emotional intelligence. I tend to be able to read situations and body language really quick. Which is a good thing because of being able to pick up on those, I can use my “woo” talent to “win” over the audience or help change the mood of the environment. Yet what I have learned is that my “woo” talent cannot be used effectively when I communicate unless I am comfortable and confident in who I am. If I am lacking confidence my “woo” talent comes off as “fake” and “trying too hard to make friends”. Although when I am expressing confidence it comes off as me being a “people,person”. I personally think I communicate well with others and it is not something that I struggle greatly with. This class has helped me further understand the way I communicate and how to communicate even better.

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