X204 Project

Everyone has a past and everyone has childhood upbringings. Some were enjoyable and some were terrible. Does our upbringing impact our frame of reference as well as our communication style? In my opinion, yes, it does. Barack Obama, the 44^th president of the United State of America, is no different. Let me give you some background on his upbringing. Obama did not have an ideal upbringing. He was raised mostly by his grandparents. His father walked out on him and his mother at the age of two to attend Harvard University. His father was a very intellectual person; however, he did not come back to visit Obama until he was ten years old. Obama grew up in poverty for much of his young life. He moved to Indonesia at a young age and saw much poverty there and a couple of years later moved back to his birth place of Hawaii. Raised by his grandparents most of his life, Obama attended a private school by scholarships where his grandparents encouraged him in his studies. In the private school, there were only a few African-Americans students enrolled. In private schools, this was still a time where it was uncommon for African Americas and whites to go to school together, so there was a lot of bullying. After high school graduation Obama attended college in LA, transferred to Columbia, and ended up going to Harvard Law School.

 All this impacted Obama because as he started working in Illinois, he was focused on helping people get a better education, helping low-income families, and working towards equal rights. His passions were coming from what he had seen as a child and how he was raised in his home. He wanted to help the less fortunate as well as others. He valued education and healthcare. I believe he was deeply influenced by his upbringing. As his knowledge grew, he realized he enjoyed public speaking. As he communicated, he could be one with his audience and be able to help them understand what he was speaking about. He used his stories so people could draw a picture and be able to understand his message. Once people understood his message he moved to what he wanted to change using uses encouraging energy and passion so that his audience would feel the same way. In 2004 the world really got to know who Barack Obama was in his Keynote speech, a very well-spoken speech, that changed his life by making him be an upcoming star for the Democratic party. He used his upbringing to relate to others and to make others relate to him.

In conclusion, how and where you grow up makes a difference in your life. It impacts your frame of reference. Your communication style is also influenced by this because of your experiences. Think about how you communicate with others and how that relates to how you grew up?

 Sources:

 Kennedy, Edward. The American Journey of Barack Obama. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2008.print.

 Remnick, David. The Bridge. New York: Alfred Publishing Company, 2010.print.

 Garrow, David. Rising Star. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2017.print.

By: Liz Hall, Nuclear Medicine Major – IUPUC