Written by Marjolene Gabionza and Kyna Marquez

In our stay in the OrCom program, we are and will be taught to see things from an OrCommunicologist’s perspective. Both our GE and major subjects leave us with memorable theories, principles, and rules that prepare every OrCom student for the big and dangerous world—full of communication breakdowns, inaccurate organizational audits, and company report deadlines.

In this article however, the lessons that professors endeavor to instill in our brains, one semester at a time, will be put to the test. Using some of the communication principles and theories that we learn from OrCom, we will try to make sense of the most anxiety-causing thing that could happen to any human being—falling and being in love.

1. “In communication, one is both a sender and a receiver.”

For a relationship to work, healthy communication is definitely required. But communication doesn’t mean that only one does the talking while the other just sits there, listening until his/her ears fall off. There must be an exchange of words—with the feelings and thoughts of both sides being accounted for.

Friendly advice: Try not to be that partner who only knows how to speak his/her thoughts, or that poor fellow who slumps down in one corner while enduring the life of a verbal punching bag.

2. “Hearing is not listening.”

Sitting there, nodding your head on cue, and saying, “Yes, darling,” at the right times aren’t the right ways to hear the other person out. Take a deep breath, have an open mind, and don’t let his/her words enter your left only to pour out from the right.

3. “Words are subject to interpretation.” + “Meanings are in people.”

In today’s language, that means wag kang assuming. A “Good morning!” is how one greets acquaintances when passing by them in the early part of the day. Your crush sending one your way doesn’t automatically mean that he/she is on board with your plan of a Victorian-style master bedroom in a two-story house for three children—one boy and two girls—and a Golden Retriever named Aurum.

When your beloved mouths the words pagod na ako with a matching loud sigh and a deep frown, don’t get all fired up thinking that he/she is going to break up with you because, probably, the person is just literally and bone-crushingly tired—OrCom students, you should know this.

4. Principle of Minimal Attachment and Late Closure

Placing your heart to someone else’s care is not the easiest of things to do. However, the difficulty of the situation is not enough reason to take shortcuts with your beau or do a half-assed job of making the relationship work. Be considerate enough to think things through. To put it more clearly, wag lang basta sabak ng sabak. Put some effort into connecting the dots and filling up the blanks, that garden path will make much more sense in the long run.

Our lessons in our everyday OrCom classes are a far cry from emotional sessions and heart-to-heart conversations. But, if you think about it, communication is (somehow) a distinct form of connection between individuals, and that OrCom values human relationships. Testing OrCom theories and principles with the fickle thing called love may be not the most conventional of thought processes, but it most definitely works. Kaya, sabi nga nila diba, magaling magmahal ang OrCom.