code black

Hello friends!

Yesterday, I hit 60 views for the 3rd time in this blogs history! With visitors from Italy, Spain, Canada, Romania, Philippines, and the US, I am quite humbled to know that you’ve made the effort to keep up with me and listen to my spiels.

Code black: Reebz is currently sick y sick y. She has been partying too hard with pringles, cookies, and milk. That and our professor has been very sick for the past 3 weeks and may or may not have given it to Reba. I bought ginger and heated it with lemon, honey, and water but Reba doesn’t like ginger so making her drink that concoction took hours. It was very cold- and evening- by the time she finished it.

This is an issue because tomorrow happens to be our first day of Spring Break. These plans( if you remember) were my task. We’ll be flying into Budapest, spending the night, and taking the first train into Vienna, where we’ll be for the first leg of the 9 days.

This will not be maximum fun if Reba is still sick so please pray for her and tell her to eat ginger.

We’re currently in class and we just took a conflict style assessment. I’m actually ish content with my results. I scored highest for compromise and collaboration, the two most balanced and positive results between concern for personal goals and concern for group goals. There is no right result but I do feel more aware of the traits between “we win” and “give a little; get a little”. The alternative results were avoidance, competition, and accommodation. I scored the lowest on avoidance which usually points at a “leave me alone” attitude. Accommodation is associated with “I give in” whilst competition is noticed for an “I win, you lose”.

*I do wish I were more competitive and had a higher concern for personal goals but my subconscious always defaults to others’. This is something I hope to work on… easier said than done.

The downsides of compromise

• Members give up some goals in order to achieve others
• Members accept losses in exchange for gaining something else
• Better options may be missed if group only uses this style

Naturally, compromise is the most popular style and has been argued to be the most effective conflict style. To each negative aspect, their is an inverse. It’s a medium.

The downsides of collaboration

• Effective collaboration requires a lot of time and energy for discussions in which all members fully participate

This may not seem so bad. It kind of is-sometimes, for me. Most people know I’m a very joyful person and I am invested in people. People…people are challenging. They require a lot of energy, time, and heart. I love a lot of people and if you know me, people do come first. But this doesn’t always win. There will always be someone that feels left out. Full member participation is draining to achieve. At the end of the day, I am satisfied and still joyful but I am also depleted.

But that’s okay because I wake up and fill up with Jesus 🙂

This time is so important both personally and for my spiritual state. If I even dare skip(which I haven’t since I’ve been here), man. It’s bad. It get’s really bad really fast.

Nevertheless, I’m pretty stoked for Vienna. They have a fig farm.

I don’t think figs are in season.