Emotion of Ohana

There is one thing that sits in the center of my values, personal mission, and personal brand. Basically there is one thing that is central to my life. What is that one thing? Family. You say 'relationships.' You may distiguish family (by blood/marriage), friends, people at work, etc by different words. I use one word: family. If I lived in Hawai'i it'd be easy to explain. I'd say 'ohana' and everyone would understand. Family is central to my life because without it my other core values have no importance and my personal mission and brand are non-existent. 

So, what's the significance? Family is the one thing that makes me get emotional. Thanks to my communications preferences I can usually hide and mask my emotions. Whether positive or negative, I'm genius at putting up a front. But, every once in a while the emotions get the best of me. 

Every likes to be appreciated, told they do a great job, be recognized for their hard work and dedication, and the like by those that they interact with whether in their personal life or work life. I appreciate the recognition but I also hate it. If I get a gift, a compliment, etc I don't deal with it awesomely. It usually makes me feel like I'm being awkward in the moment, but I don't like to deal with it in the moment when it happens. One reason... I'm analytical. I need time to process and figure out what I want to say, what I want to do in response, etc. Second reason... I get freaking emotional. If I don't have to deal with it and acknowledge the situation in the moment then I can control the emotion. I can prevent myself from watering eyes, tears (whether happy or sad), and all that other girly stuff. No one wants to see that. Everyone would make fun of me; I would expect nothing less.

(I don't want to fail to mention, I'm totally okay with others showing their emotion. You can cry, laugh, be angry, whatever. I'm okay with others emotions. I'm just scared of mine, well, at least showing mine.)

I usually deal with something that would evoke emotion by creating a distraction in the moment. Then, I follow-up with a message to express my feelings, thanks and appreciation. Today is an excellent example. Yes, it's real life story time... Three students brought me gifts. They were simple. They took the time to make me gluten-free cookies. And, they got me a sweater to match the one they each have. Like I said, simple gifts; but, most importantly thoughtful and intentional. They don't know it, but I was darn close to getting emotional in the moment. How would I explain watering eyes (and maybe tears)?!? Happy? Appreciative? Well, not like it matters because I made myself not have to deal with it in the moment. I said a quick, short, pointed thanks and busied myself with other class prep tasks. Then,  later in the evening when I wouldn't have to deal with face-to-face emotions and had time to process, think and be all analytical I sent a follow-up message to say a heartfelt thanks and that I appreciated the gifts. 

Ohana, emotions, saying thanks... a bunch of random topics, right? No. Not at all. Family is central to how I live my life. Relationships define my life. Therefore, there's an emotional commitment and an unconditional love. If you're passionate about something, it evokes emotion. If you're commited to providing support and it's acknowledged that you're succeeding at meeting that value, it evokes emotion. Passion and support may be two of my other values, but they would be irrelevant if not for family, the fundamental core of my life.