Third attempt

Nothing like writing journal entries multiple times on the final day and having blogger keep deleting them. Here is my third attempt at empathy training. I chose to be mute for my empathy training. This took some planning because I had to make sure that my staff and clients knew ahead of time that this would be happening and that I didn't have any meetings scheduled for the day. I ended up using written and gestural communication as my primary forms to get needs met, questions answered, directives given, etc. This was difficult and it became clear very quickly how much I rely on my voice. The day went smoothly for the most part, a few impromptu meetings, questions from staff and clients etc. were all able to be fielded with my alternative forms. Most people who interacted with me were interested and more than willing to participate in the challenge with me even though it extended the amount of time it took to do things. There was one person that I interacted with however that was not willing to participate and who was upset that I would ask her to communicate with me in that way. She wrote me a note that had a very angry tone telling me that it was part of my job to communicate with others. She was not willing to look at other forms of communication as alternatives to verbal interaction. I then made a professional decision to interact with her verbally so as not to strain our professional relationship. It was frustrating for me feeling as though she was very closed minded, but it was a good learning experience as well. I feel as though I got the opportunity to experience a small amount of the intolerance that people with limited abilities must have to deal with much more regularly. Overall I learned to have an appreciation and understanding on how much I rely on my ability to speak.