Strengths Of Speaking At Funerals

Speaking at a funeral isn’t something that many communicators are well at. For me, speaking at funerals for my loved ones is what I would identify as my major strength in the area of communication. Although funerals are sad occasions, through the sadness, I’m able to persevere and articulate how I feel. I believe this is my strength when it comes to communicating because I look at it is my time to express how I feel about losing my loved one. Before losing my mom, I would have never thought this would be a strength in the area of communication for me. My freshmen year of high school I was faced with an unexpected tragedy and that was losing my mom. I was so distraught at first and didn’t even imagine myself speaking at her funeral, but as

I believe my strength in communication relates to the communication competence section in many ways. For one, the section discusses that competence is situational. When I’m speaking at a funeral I’m more competent in that situation than in a situation that deals with conflict. Secondly, there’s the empathy/perspective taking section that I can relate my strength to. It explains how people are able to communicate better when they are able to empathize with other people’s point of view. When speaking at funerals you’re already in a sad element, so you’re able to empathize when relaying your message. At my mom’s funeral it was different when I spoke, because it was my mom. At my classmate’s funeral, since it was a different cause of death, I knew I had to empathize with the people there differently. Thirdly, there’s the self-monitoring stage that I went through when speaking at my classmate’s funeral. As I would speak and look into the audience, I would ask myself, “Am I saying the right things to bring comfort to these people?” It was very important to me that I gave a message that would bring comfort to his loved ones. Finally, there’s communication apprehension that I can relate to my strength. Communication apprehension is defined as “feelings of anxiety that arise in unfamiliar or difficult communication texts.” Even though this is my communication strength, because of the occasion, it can still give me a feeling of