ENG121 Week 2 – Discussion- Response to Reading: Community

The story I decided to choose for this discussion post is Tim Gunn and a Leaky Shower: Welcome to My Life, Little Guy. The story is about a mother who has just given birth and has to cope with the distraction brought about by an ongoing construction work. Other than being overwhelmed by the ongoing work, she cannot also cope up with the heat. The construction work makes too much noise such that her newborn baby cannot even fall asleep. Her health condition is also affected by the construction work since her asthmatic condition exacerbates with wheezing becoming too much for her. However, while watching TV she sees how Tim Gunn is advising a designer to listen to his gut. The author realizes that she needed an inspirational person like Tim Gunn. Tim Gunn’s three-word phrase of ‘make it work’ is very helpful to the author. The phrase helps the author realize that she only needed to make it work and this makes her find a solution to her problems ( Downs, 2015). Regarding the SQ3R process, the parts that I used are survey, read and recite. I first of all surveyed through the whole story to check if there were any subheadings. I then read the whole story highlighting the parts that could help me understand the story. Finally, I silently recited the story to myself to see if I had understood.

While reading the story, I could relate with what happened to me at one point. I was on a one-week leave and had to take care of our baby who was two months old. My wife had started reporting to work so I was the one to do everything since I was the one available at that moment. I have to say I have never been assigned the duty of taking care of a newborn and I knew things would be very frustrating for me. At one point, the baby could cry and cooling her down was very difficult to me. Feeding her could not even cool her down. I tried everything possible to cool her down but all my efforts proved futile. However, the idea of watching a television came to my mind. I knew that children love cartoons very much. When I turned on the screen and tried to point at the screen, she became very curious to see what was happening. She ended up cooling down and every time she cried, I was simply taking her to the TV screen to watch cartoons. Reading this story has therefore reminded me of how I solved the problem at that time. The author of the story finds the solution on TV just I did at that time.

Based on the story, I can predict that watching television programs can help us solve the challenges we face in life. Sometimes people face problems across the world and solutions to some these problems can be found in Tv programs. It should be noted that we don not always have to find the ultimate solution to the challenges we are facing. From the story, the author has to cope with the distractions of the construction work. It is very difficult for her to cope with this given that she has a newborn baby that is only one week old. The construction work also makes her health condition to worsen since she is asthmatic and wheezing increased. However, while watching television, she realized how Tim Gunn was inspirational while using the phrase ‘make it work’. The phrase turned out to be inspirational to the author since she later finds a solution to the challenges she had been facing. She realized that she did not have to make things work but only needed to make it work. She says, “That meant closing the door on a silt-covered bedroom and making the nursery floor my temporary bed, eating on paper plates so my husband and I wouldn’t create any dirty dishes, giving up the guilt that came with ordering takeout” (Downs, 2015). This ends up being the solution to the challenges she had been facing. From this story, I can therefore predict that watching television when faced with problems can at times make us get a solution to the challenges.

Reference

Downs, M. (2015, July 1). Tim Gunn and a Leaky Shower: Welcome to my Life, Little Guy . Washington Post .

Communication Strategies, edited by Group Emerald, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/lib/ashford-ebooks/detail.action?docID=282890