Relationship Narrative: Personal Narrative Essay

My role is a victim of abuse who is trying to figure out if she should stay or leave her relationship. I face a huge challenge because I have to make a huge decision that may or may not impact my life. I Am the girl friend kenyatta and close friends with jaala. When I started high school I was on my own because all my old friends went to different schools. I met one girl who i became really close with and we became best friends. Later I met this guy who I became friends with. We then start to like each other and we started dating. I then see that becoming his girlfriend was a huge mistake. A few years have passed after we met and, I seem to notice he wasn't the same as he was a few years back. He became really aggressive, controlling and really demanding

Six years in a relationship you begin to reminisce on how the relationship developed, and how you got as far as you are. At only 21 years old I have been in a serious relationship now for the past 6 years. There have been ups, and downs, and everything else in between. It wasn’t until taking Interpersonal Communication that I got a better in depth understanding of how romantic relationships form and change over time based on Knapp’s stages of romantic development. Throughout this paper I will be going over why we form relationships, Knapp’s stages of romantic development, the research I have found on studies conducted based on romantic relationships, and personal experience.

Relationships of all sorts are important to a healthy lifestyle. Whether it is close friends, family, or a significant other, humans physically need the benefits of a relationship to survive. All relationships are different and unique, but in order to have a successful and rewarding relationship, it must be a healthy one. Throughout the duration of Psychology of Close Relationship class and outside research, I have gathered what a good relationship consists of and how to improve within that relationship. Luckily, I have a great boyfriend and believe we have an excellent relationship, but of course there is always room for improvement.

It is often said that all good things come to an end. Relationships come and go, and some mean more than others. In fact, there was even a relationship model developed by a communication researcher by the name of Mark Knapp. In his model, he goes through what seems to be presented as a smooth step transition from each stage in which a relationship eventually evolves into. As I studied this up then down ladder model, I began to realize that I ought to build up some strong calf muscles, because my relationship sure has climbed up and down a few flights of stairs. Mark Knapp believes that relationships go through multiple stages, the uphill stages being initiation, experimenting, intensifying, integrating, bonding, then relational maintenance. On the flip side, Knapp believes the descending stages to be differentiating, circumscribing, avoiding, and eventually, termination.

I have met many people, but I have not been able to maintain relationships with most of them. It is a very difficult to maintain a relationship, especially if you do not see them on a consistent basis. I have lost touch with multiple people in my life that I really would have loved to have still been friends with. One in particular is Lydia Dixon.

Camp Creighton Pond felt like my home away from home during the summers. Although it was my first week, I instantly made a connection with my counselor. Today, we were playing “Capture the Flag” in the woods, an infamous game at camp. For the first time I was terrified; the woods at camp consisted of a vast maze of trails that seemed impossible to remember. Thus, I had to rely on my counselor not to end up lost. I had to place my trust in him and looked to him for guidance. My counselor and I went off to explore the other campsites in order to devise a plan to steal their flag. As we ran through the never-ending woods, he pointed out little landmarks throughout the trails in order to help me better understand where we were are and where we were going. In no time I had a basic map etched in my head. The more time we spent in the woods, the more confident I became. However, while scouting out the other groups’ campsite, my counselor got captured. Suddenly it was up to me, I had to figure a way to rescue my counselor and win the game. I was alone.

During the summer, I began dating this beyond wonderful boy a few years older than me, knowing full well that he’d be leaving for college and I’d be leaving to visit family in Boston in less than 3 weeks, and on top of that, I’d probably doom the relationship early due to my need to control everything, cynical outlook and fear of commitment, but I decided I had to go for it because I knew that in order to have a well-rounded life full of different experiences and genuine connections, I had to risk losing control over everything and have to care about someone else more than my own feelings.

Throughout this course, we will be examining the challenges within female friendships and factors that can pose challenges to these relationships. When considering female relationships that I have established, I can relate, because I have experienced many challenges making and maintaining female friendships. One friendship that was particularly challenging for me was in high school involving my friend Sarah. I met Sarah in geography class when we were placed next to each other in assigned seating arrangements. Throughout the semester we worked on projects together, which eventually led to our friendship growing outside of school. While attending our four years of high school together, we developed a close bond and frequently participated

Through my involvement in Relationships, I learned that staying diligent can advance my skills. Having the talent to accomplish anything I put an effort towards gives my life no boundaries. Furthermore, I learned that communication is a key to understanding topics that may seem uncomfortable. The attribute that I would contribute to Rush Medical College would be my ability to face challenges. I believe life is all about one’s perception or perspective. I would also contribute by reassuring others that it is acceptable to ask a question when something is unknown. I believe if one does not seek answers it leads to a decrease in intellectual growth. The Rush community will be impacted by my ability to be receptive.

I may didn’t get the answers I wanted, but I still learned so much from this project about our relationship but most importantly myself. One thing I have learn doing this assignment would be no matter how open you are to someone, don’t expect them to be at that same level of vulnerability. There are some discussion points I did not add to some of my journals because it truly was kind of awkward to express yourself whole heartedly and the other person response is “ok” or “oh’. Everyone does not communicate the same way I do, so I definitely was expecting too much from him at times. another thing I have learned is in order to be a great communicator I must first be a great communicator with myself. I monitor my relationship and communication

Throughout our life, we have plenty of relationships. Some good, some lousy, but we each learn something new from a relationship. We learn to grow and love ourselves and that person. As our growth and love increase, our relationships deepen and become stronger than they have been before. Yes, there are also arduous times in relationships, too. But if we persevere through it and stick to what we know is right, then everything turns out fine. All these good characteristics that we find in our relationships, can stem from our one relationship with Christ. Christ teaches us how to be loving and merciful and as we deepen our relationship with Him; our other relationships become happier and stronger.

I could reason that as long as he wasn’t physically or verbally abusing me, that I could stick around. Being with him was better than being alone. I would always have someone there for me when I needed them if I stuck around. For a long time I forgave his feeling like he couldn’t trust me because he couldn’t trust his ex. Maybe, I could prove that I was faithful and we could figure out the rest of our issues. We both tried to hold it together for as long as we could. But in reality, the relationship hadn’t been working for a long time and it was time to let go and cut our losses. In hindsight we probably should have given up sooner because not every relationship is meant to be and in the end it was somewhat of a train

Couple months ago I’ve decided to renew our living room and my bedroom furniture. Even though I was the initiator and the buyer, I had to tried for so long to convinced my mother to let me spend my money on these whole new sets of furniture. I’ve had a big help in this process though; my brother. He was the influencer and convinced my mother that it is time to renew our furniture. I’ve always hated them because there were used when we got them and I never got a chance to say no, because in that time it was all we could afford.

John evolved into my best friend and, wrapping myself in his world, I disregarded the importance of my core group of friends. We reached interpersonal commitment and all of my time belonged to John. We went to events and hung out according to his time frame, with little consideration for my needs. All John said was “no, I don’t want to do that,” and I respected his decision. Looking

I could borrow her phone to talk to him for free. She let me. I was so