January Blog Post - Maria Rios

Although the reading by Ann Russo titled Between Speech and Silence: Reflections on Accountability was quite dense, it reflected many ideas that I found personally and universally relevant. There are many areas in the reading that stood out to me, but I am going to particularly reflect on one sentence that stood out to me the most which was, “Active listening implies an openness to a more collective process, one in which those most privileged are not at the center, and one in which our ideas and ourselves are open to modification, change, and transformation.” (Russo 36).

I’ve come to accept that I am introverted person. For some reason, I always thought introverts had a negative connotation to them so I would refuse to accept that all of an introvert’s qualities reflected who I was as a person. But the more I started realizing that I was, indeed, an introvert, I have started recognizing that one of our qualities is how much we actively listen. Normally, people have to learn how to actively listen. Introverts usually already have this quality because we really don’t like to engage in conversation, but we are listening and we know what is going on around us, not just hearing. We don’t just hear about what is happening, we listen and assess our discussion based on what we understood.

To help support my proof about the strong listening quality that introverts possess, there is this article I found online called “10 Quality Traits All Introverts Have, Even If They Don’t Know it” on lifehack.org. The very first trait they list about introverts is that they are good listeners. It also mentions that introverts listen before they speak, which I can confirm is an accurate quality. I think introverts possess the actively listening quality but along with it, whenever we are listening to something that challenges are viewpoints, we don’t really shut it down but instead we take it with an open mind. Russo mentions this in her article, “the listener accepts a commitment to rethink her own assumptions, and to confront the internal obstacles encountered as one’s views are challenged.” (Russo 37).

Since I have accepted the fact that I am an introvert, I have definitely learned to effectively use my strengths. Even though I don’t talk at all in class, you can bet I am listening to everything.