I’ve always considered myself a visual person. It’s how I understand the word around me. It’s how I understand communication when I observe people’s facial expressions. Visualization is the tool I use to communicate to others when I have an idea — be it a flowchart, a diagram, a painting, or even a photograph. I learn visually. This is what I’ve believed all my life.

Lately I’ve begun to rethink this. Especially now that I’m back in school. While it’s true that showing me is much more effective than reading a manual, I’m starting to believe that listening may also be the missing half of the entire learning process. This grows to be more evident the more I think about it. I retain more information from audio books than I do reading text. In class, I find it easier to comprehend the professor’s lecture when I just stare at the blank space of my desk and listen. And when I’m on the phone, I’m much more fully in tune with the conversation than when I’m in front of the person.

Another theory is that visual learning is such a profound method of communication for me that it becomes a distraction, especially whenever when the lecture is given verbally. I find myself studying the persons facial expressions, small hand gestures, the clothes they are wearing, the scars on their face. I become so inundated with physical appearance that I “doze off” lyrically.

Perhaps this may also be the reason why I’m a really good sound board. What may appear to be attentively listening is actually my natural tendency to observe.

I find it fascinating that simple observations can lead to such discoveries of one self. There’s something genuinely gratifying when you can answer the question “why?” Now that I’m beginning to understand myself more fully I can make conscious shifts in my behavior to improve communication — and not just with classroom lectures but also in my relationships.

I often pray for wisdom. In his time when he sees fit, he answers them.