Interpersonal Communication: Personal

In my experience here at Creighton, I have found that the Johari window is very applicable to my life. When I first met people here I didn't tell them the very private things about my life because I didn't trust them like I did my friends back home. But as time has passed, and I have come to make a close group of friends, my trust has grown and I am able to tell people certain things. With the different quadrants, I am able to control what I disclose to people and what they know about me.

The first quadrant was very small in the beginning because I didn't know and trust many people. But as I became more familiar and my trust in them grew, my first quadrant increased in size. I was able to tell my roommate more about myself once I knew that she was my friend and that she was someone I could confide in. I feel satisfied after revealing things about myself and having people accept me for who I am.

The second quadrant is applicable here as well. The people I have met most likely perceive me in a way that is new to me. I don't know what they think about me and I might not ever. When I was at home, I had a general idea of what people thought about me because I had been friends with them for so long. But now that I have moved to Omaha and changed friends and met new people, they probably perceive me in a completely different way. They could find my sarcasm very annoying or they could think that it is very funny. I will never know.

Although I have made people I can trust here, there are still things that I want to keep to myself. Some things are just extremely private and don't necessitate sharing. This would be where quadrant three fits in. I don't necessarily want to disclose all of my private family matters to the world so I would choose to keep those to myself. I might not even want to share who my latest crush is with my roommate. All these things are private to me and fit into the "hidden" quadrant.

The fourth and final quadrant is completely unknown. It's unknown to myself and to others. Hopefully by being here at Creighton this quadrant will be explored and my potential will be drawn out. I hope to personally grow and flourish while being in such a great community of people. By taking different classes, meeting new people and trying different activities, my hope is to discover my true potential.

The Johari window directly relates to the relationships I have made here so far at Creighton. Each quadrant links to myself and others in someway whether it be through making something known about myself or not.