Every week, my coach sends out the practice plan, along with the quote of the week. This year, she started sending out questions to answer along with the quote that we turn into the staff at the beginning of the week. In the past, we’ve had motivating, teammate-related ones and other team-oriented quotes and questions. This week, it was more personal and regarded our ability to “read the room.”
Being able to read a room is also identified as environmental awareness, and can be vital for the success of an individual in different situations. My responses to the discussion about my own environmental awareness made me pretty emotional by the end of it. Growing up, I was always book-smart but had trouble with social cues, with environmental awareness being one of them. Nothing too crazy, just times where I would come into a setting, such as practice, singing and dancing when the situation was more serious. I have been caught a few times in the last three years here doing this at a time when it is not needed, mainly when I am coming late from class and missed the part of practice where we upset the coaches and had just received a good, stern talking-to. So naturally, this week’s discussion hit home with me.