Relationship Reflection

Relationship Reflection

Definitely I am not isolated but interrelated with the people around me, including my family, my friends,  and my colleagues, and even my flowers, etc., who and which have a great impact on my way of thinking, my attitudes and my life at home and in my workplace; from whom and which I can learn experience and practices that benefit me a lot. The people who affect me a lot in my daily life and in my work are my sister Xiaocong, my friend Claire, my colleague Lindsay and my health consultant Jinping; my lily flowers also benefit me to some extent.

My sister and me 

Xiaocong, my sister, is always acting as my guide and facilitator in my personal life. My sister is willing to listen carefully and patiently to what I say to her. After I finish my words, my sister will share her opinions about my topic; and if I come across some confusions, she will guide me step by step by telling me if she were me, what she would do and what outcomes would probably be brought. Through our mutual communication and care, we feel close to each other, comfortable to listen to each other, and willing to take the other’s perspective and find a better way to clear our confusions or solve our problems. What’s more, since we are sisters, we have the same family background, in which we understand each other better.

My friend and me

My friend, Claire, who once was my classmate in my college and now is my housemate, is a very close friend to me. When we were in college, we got to know each other, started to learn each other’s family, gradually knew each other’s academic achievement and thus helped each other in study and life. Now we rent and live in the same house, where we have more time and opportunities to understand each other’s life style, habits, ways of problem solving and thinking, etc.. The closer we are, the more conflicts may happen. However, we try to stay calm and sit down for a talk, we respect each other’s own ways of thinking, are open communicators and honest in our thought. Thus, we build up a mutual-trust and mutual-assistance relationship between each other.

My colleagues

Lindsay, my colleague,  as a classroom teacher, and I, as a teaching assistant, are working in the same classroom for children aged 3-4 years old in this schooling year. Professionally, she is not only the teacher of the children, but also the teacher of me, who is knowledgeable, experienced, updated and willing to share her experience in the early childhood field. From her I can learn some practical experience and teaching strategies. Personally, we are friends, too. In our spare time, we will schedule some time, plan some outdoor activities and have fun together, simply like a Japanese dinner that both of us like to eat. Though some problems would occur due to different cultures and customs, we put aside out biases, welcome the diversity and may try new things and then have a brand-new experience. 

My lovely flower

My health consultant, Jinping, gives me lots of advice on how to live a healthy life and encourage me to have a positive attitude towards my current and future life, through texting messages or posts on the personal blog, which always reminds me that our physical and emotional well-being is so important in every aspect of our life, such as the development and maintenance of relationships among people, the performance of our professional work, and our attitudes towards people and events, etc.. 

I love to have some fresh flowers in my room, which makes me have a good mood and spend time and effort taking care of them. Every time when I come back home and open my door, I will take a look at the flowers to check if they need more water, if they grow well or if any bud comes into blossom. Through taking care of the flower, I learn to be observant and patient, waiting to see the beautiful outcome.

From the relationships above that I am talking about, factors that contribute to developing and maintaining each relationship can be concluded into the following: communication, through which we make clear our confusions, misunderstanding, diverse ways of thinking and attitudes, etc.; care, which makes us bond with and be close to each other; learning others’  background, which help to acquire the basic information have a better understanding of people; mutual-trust and mutual assistance, with which relationships are strengthened and maintained if problems occur; respect, with which we can cross a cultural barrier among people; willingness to share, which help us exchange ideas and experience and broaden our views, and thus cherish the beneficial relationships; patience, which is one of the basic factor of all kinds of relationship because it makes relationships sustainable.

All these factors are also the characteristics that make partnerships, for example, family partnership. Working as an effective early childhood professional, those factors, which I have learned from the multifaceted and interrelated relationships, positively affect me a lot.  When working with children and their , I learn to be patient, caring, attentive, communicable, respectful, trusting, helpful and willing to share ideas and experience, so that we can meet the needs of children, help to develop a holistic child, partner with family and work together on the same page to improve children’s learning and development and so on.