For my connection to outside sources, I chose to read Carly’s Voice by Carly and Arthur Fleischmann. Throughout my senior project, and then again when reading the book, I’ve been continually learning what to do versus what not to do with communication. I try to express myself to the fullest despite being very much so limited to a  very isolated experience when communicating. So, when I was podcasting, I always tried to find a way to include another person. When I was presenting, I would practice with other people in person as if I was talking to someone. That said,  I realized along the way that communication is as much what not to do, as what you do. So what I mean by that is that, for example, when I did my presentation on Japanese orthography, I needed to realize that it was better to have a simple understanding, than it was to try and endlessly pursue accuracy and leave my audience behind.  When I did my What’s In A Voice project, I realized it was important to try and make sure that even if my words didn’t come out as polished as I wanted them to, that even the general gist of what I had been thinking was properly conveyed to my interviewee. But in terms of what not to do, I think that reading the book allowed me to place an emphasis on hearing in the way that needs to be heard. In the book, Carly Fleischmann is a nonverbal autistic girl, and for the first 12 to 13 years of her life, her family had no idea what was going on in her world. She was completely alien and foreign in a way that you wouldn’t expect your daughter to be. The book chronicled the journey of her and her family discovering how to talk to each other, and what was revealed when she finally was able to type. One of the things that the book taught me was: communication is not always your typical two way interaction. Even if it feels like you’re talking into a void, your feelings are being conveyed to the other side. and you just need to have patience and wait for them to be received and interpreted and sent back to you, even though it may take them much much longer time than it would for other audiences. I think another thing that the book taught me is that you can’t force other people to your standard. You do have to meet them halfway, or even maybe you’re not even going to be able to meet them halfway, you just have to meet them where they’re at, whether that takes very minor or very major effort on your part, which is something I’d already known, but never really had such a concrete example to attach it to. And even though I know this is a very… I suppose, exaggerated example for me to be drawing upon, because it’s a very highly specific experience, it’s also just a sign that even if you can’t speak, maybe they’re communicating whether through words, or if they can’t use words, maybe they’re communicating with you through gestures and drawings. All of this is just telling me that communication looks different for everybody. It’s important that you’re able to recognize that everyone’s needs are different, to have one as an audience is different. And you cannot go into each interactions with the same experiences and expectations that you had when you first started out, it’s not fair to  you, and it’s not fair to your audience, either. Communication is a novel experience with each person that you come across. And that’s the magic of listening and talking with other people.