This was an accident and I was an accident. My brother was planned, I on the other hand, was a New Year’s Eve with a bit too much champagne. Nevertheless, my parent’s unconditional love for me has proven to be representative of how I view life. What happens may not always be what I want, but it will always be what I need. I wouldn’t have thought like this without communication; in fact, I wouldn’t have thought at all. Learning to communicate has allowed me to understand the influence words have on myself, others, and the world.
My words have the power to manifest my dreams, because what I say becomes my reality; moreover, what I say is my reality. I influence everything around me with my mind, body, and voice, and all of it is communication. My identity revolves around what I’m thinking, saying, and doing, and under a microscope we can see that they are all the same. The correlation between my thoughts and words provide me with my personality and define who I am. If I tell myself “I’m happy” enough, I will be. Unfortunately, like a snowball barreling down a mountain, communication can be beautifully destructive. If I tell myself that I’m unworthy, my life will be defined by that. One little phrase will grow until it is my identity, whether it should be or not. What I say is who I am, so I always have the power to change. Am I getting too philosophical?
The power of communication lies in its ability to bring people together. Through our association with words, we concur on what images, feelings, and things are. Communication is not just enhanced by people; instead, it is a necessary factor for our coexistence. What separates us from our predecessors is the ability to articulate and describe what we are experiencing. We give everything a name, and those names affect how we view life. I only understand what things are because I have been told they are such a way, and in the same facet, I only understand you because you of what you tell me.
Humanity bonds over our understanding of the world through communication, but I’ve come to learn that there are two sides to the power of words. If the power of words comes from being able to define what is true, those who use can define what is true for generations. We can all agree that water isn’t wet, but if we don’t agree on our theistic beliefs, we push each other apart. All because of words, men die, empires fall, and people try to build massive walls. The abuse of rhetoric influences and defines who we are as a society and individuals, and there is no power greater.
Communication is so innately alive that there is no conscious thought without it. If every thought and action is a word, we are always speaking. Our words are our reality, so what is spoken is always what is true. I may have told myself that I was studying communication on accident, but now I see there is nothing accidental about it. Every word that has crossed my consciousness has led me to where I am today. The power of word is to decide: to decide what to believe and to decide what is real. Who I am, how I feel, what story I tell, and how I tell it all revolve around communication. There is no life without communication, at least no life worth living.