The Art of Meaningful Communication

Starting your freshman year of college across the country during the start of a pandemic is pretty confusing. I grew up in the southwestern side of Chicago and moved to Atlanta after receiving the Goizueta Scholarship to attend Georgia State University. My biggest worry while embarking on the most transformative experience of my life was how I would communicate with friends and family. Being many miles away from home, it seemed that I was bound to lose people close to me due to communication constraints. However, it turned out that this couldn't have been further from the truth. Even though I was living on my own, I wasn't alone. Here are my three biggest takeaways on how to create and maintain meaningful communication with loved ones in your life.

First, being proactive in establishing norms and routines is the best framework for any relationship. One of my best friends, Lio, and I would share our respective work and school schedules at the beginning of every semester so we knew when we could call each other or play video games online. Although our schedules were often busy and always changing, establishing routines would put us at ease as we knew we could allocate times of our week to catch up.

Second, I would share the big wins I achieved with my family and friends. My grandmother raised me, and I am very close to her. Throughout my first two years of college, however, I didn't share my wins with her because I was too focused on my professional pursuits. At the beginning of my junior year, I attended the National Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA) convention. When I went home for winter break and spoke about my experience with ALPFA with my grandmother, she was very proud of how hard I worked to secure internships with top companies while building an amazing friend group. After that experience, I called her to tell her about my big wins while sharing stories about the mentors and friends I made along the way.

Lastly, I learned that there is power in vulnerability, which I learned during my time with the National Millennial and Gen Z Community (NMGZ). During our time on the Atlanta trip, we had a surprise trip to Dad's Garage, a comedy theatre specializing in improvisation. Initially, I was scared to attempt improv because I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of new people. Based on trust and communication, the activities included fun elements like making animal sounds to speak, which felt silly at first but quickly became enjoyable as everyone laughed together. I felt safe and was able to open up with the group, realizing it's okay to do things out of the ordinary. This experience gave me a newfound perspective on my shortcomings, allowing me to open up to people. So now I am more vulnerable with my loved ones, which has drastically improved my communication with those that I cherish and am grateful to have in my life.