Thoughts

A lot of our readings make me uncomfortable. Not the kind of uncomfortable that makes me want to put the book down, but the kind of uncomfortable where I think to myself wow, that really hits home. I find that a lot of our discussions and our assignments help us identify things about ourselves that we have not quite thought of before or maybe not expressed aloud. In our discussions I have heard my classmates share stories that they are embarrassed to tell, but they feel comfortable enough to share because that’s simply the nature of the class. I have shared stories that I normally would not in a classroom setting, and I still cannot quite figure out exactly what this class provides that others do not which enable us as students to workshop emotions rather than ideas.

It is possible that the reason we deem this class to be an appropriate setting for sharing our feelings and experiences is due to the fact that it is called “Writing for Healing”; we are all experienced writers, learners and students. However, when I consider the occurrence of listening tents at a town festival and that any person off the street is welcome to share any story to a complete stranger I begin to wonder exactly how we as humans find a healing aspect in the act of sharing. How does this desire to understanding and engage with other people enable individuals to find tranquility or reconciliation? Could it be the collaboration of ideas or opinions? Maybe it is just the primal instinct to feel welcomed and part of some thing—a community. But what is it about the atypical classroom environment that does not always allow a structure that can be inviting? What is the classroom as a community?

Usually a classroom setting is strictly academic and a set of rules or beliefs are strategically followed. Share your opinion, but don’t share your feelings. Talk about your experiences, but now how they made you feel. Talk politics and religion, but do not talk about your political beliefs or religion. For example, I didn’t dare talk about my racist encounters in Croatia this summer while talking about immigration policies in my European Politics class but I did mention how diverse certain parts of the country are. Most classes and environments discourage the consideration of personal experience when applied to logic… So how are we as individuals inclined to tare that wall down and learn from it—make reason out of experience and feeling? I am not suggesting that we use every social interaction as an opportunity to share personal thoughts or experience; I’m advocating for the exploration of the privately inclusive environments that invite strangers to find meaning in sharing.

Think way back to show-and-tell. Kids are asked to bring in an object that they want to share with their class, and then they have to provide some information about it and explain why it is important to them. As we grow older, most people are taught that this sort of explanation is vanity or bragging. Explaining how we feel about something that is important to us gets suppressed, and this is one way we learn not to share our feelings. But is sharing our feelings really vain? If sharing our feelings were vain then how come therapy works? Sure, there is a science and expertise behind every good therapist, but how about any good friend? There are some people who feel the need to tell their closest friend everything, and then there are some people who tell everyone every personal detail of their life. Of course, the latter is most commonly associated with narcissism, but could it not also be considered as validity? When someone expresses their feelings to any one person (or many people), it could simply be for the sake of validating their existence, experience, or emotion. How else can we explain how strangers can sometimes feel comfortable sharing an intimate moment of self-realization, or how a classroom of students can connect on some level while having come from different backgrounds? I would like to look further into this.