Author: Jason Feminella

From the beginning of our education, everyone knows of someone who always asked the question, “When are we gonna use this in the real world?” Admittingly, I have been that student before. No matter how annoying it might be to a teacher, this is a valid question. It is important for students to understand the purpose of all the work they put into learning a subject. It’s absurd to expect someone to put their all into an assignment when the purpose appears meaningless. As a student, I can confidently say that I tend to feel more inclined to learn when I can recognize the importance in respect to my life outside of the classroom. Leading education organizations have realized this and made it a goal to accomplish this through integrative learning. One of these organizations is the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U). According to them, integrative learning is key in “developing the ability to make, recognize, and evaluate connections among disparate concepts, fields, or contexts…” To put this in simpler terms, the goal of integrative learning is to give students a way to connect what they learn in a classroom to the outside world. Incorporating integrative learning is extremely important to reveal how “seemingly disparate” things connect. In particular, the impact of students’ relationships to the facilities services, the heating plant, and Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild” to our academic success. Ultimately, a students’ success coincides with their ability to connect their academics to other parts of their lives.

After analyzing the provided information on the Geneseo Facilities Services web page with integrative learning in mind, I have had a serious reconsideration of the effect of the Geneseo staff on my academic success. While, don’t get me wrong, I have always had a great deal of gratitude toward the staff, I struggled to understand the extent of their effect on my education. This was because I lacked the imagination which integrative learning promotes, to think outside the box. Fortunately, the well-made video on the Facilities Services’ web page put it in perspective. The men and women of Geneseo Facilities Services go above and beyond to establish a safe and clean environment for us to learn in. The video points out that the staff of the Geneseo Facilities service “plays a significant role in advancing SUNY Geneseo’s mission by providing quality maintenance services across campus infrastructure to ensure that the college runs smoothly.”. Trust me, students already have enough stress as it is. Having a well-organized school lifts a weight off our already overworked shoulders. Their contributions, which include the maintenance of study areas, dining halls, and academic buildings, creates an environment where students can better focus on their education with limited distractions. Picture this, you are studying in a smelly room, the garbage is overflowing, there is a light flickering, and the room is an utter mess. Are you gonna be able to pay attention to your work? No. Instead we are provided with clean, safe areas maintained by the staff who take pride in their job. Their work is far more involved than simply providing an aesthetically pleasing campus. They also save us a huge amount of time. Not having to worry about cleaning bathrooms, taking out garbage, and many other things like this adds up to hundreds of hours of saved time over the course of our education. If something breaks, simply put in a work order on their web page and someone will take care of it. It’s the little things like this that make our lives easier, which ultimately makes school easier. Even though the facilities services staff do not directly help us study for classes, their work indirectly affects our grades. This is why they have a huge impact on our academic success.

Using an outlook similar to the one used in the previous paragraph, the Geneseo Heating Plant also heavily impacts our education indirectly. Using the information given on the Geneseo Heating Plant webpage, the staff’s responsibilities present a benefit that cannot be seen without making unconventional connections.. Their work, which includes providing “high pressure steam, heating hot water, domestic water, and natural gas”, affects every single building on campus. These amenities provide us with the tools to succeed that professors simply cannot. The comfortable environment provided stimulates the effectiveness of students. This includes everything from the ability to take a hot shower to studying at a comfortable temperature. Even professors seem to teach better when in a comfortable environment, which leads to students doing better in classes. According to a study conducted by Loyola University,  learning at an uncomfortable temperature negatively impacts a students memory, which in turn will negatively affect their grades. Next, as stated in the webpage, the staff also have a duty of supplying the services “in an economic, efficient, safe, and timely manner.” This is important to our academic success because the money saved by the staff can be implemented into technology for teaching such as new projectors. Considering the extent of the impact of their job on the campus, I find them just as important to advancing our education as the teaching staff. Their work merely affects us in a different way than professors do. Without making the connection between the Heating Plant and our academic success, their influence can easily be missed.

After rethinking the story “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler through the “integrative learning” scope used in the previous sections, I was opened up to an entire other part of the story. The initially vague connections between my academics to both Geneseo maintenance facilities were found by exploring less obvious options. The scope used to explore how this ties into “Bloodchild” was the impact of the non-traditional main characters on Gan’s attempt to gain knowledge on how the world works around him. While the main impression “Bloodchild” left on me was the relationship between T’Gatoi and Gan, there are a number of other characters that affected Gan’s journey that seemed to be overshadowed by T’Gatoi. Similar to how teachers overshadowed the facilities in respect to the impact on our education. Characters such as Qui, Gan’s brother, represent the facilities in this example. Qui is the character being overshadowed.  Even though his character was not present for most of the story, his impact on Gan’s decision was huge. Qui went through a traumatic experience of witnessing what happens when a birth that doesn’t go as planned. What he witnessed changed his life, in turn, changing Gan’s outlook on the situation at hand. Qui is a background character when it comes to the birth, yet he still provides Gan with the proper information necessary to make his decision. This conclusion was made through the endless possibilities of applying integrative learning.

Naturally, when I think of integrative learning, I think of getting out of the traditional classroom and, for example, conducting an experiment. However, I can see how when it comes to writing techniques, it can be difficult to find a hands-on approach that isn’t writing an essay or paragraph. Fortunately, there are endless possibilities of ways to implement learning into the real world. For a writing class, it is more than simply utilizing different types of grammar; it also includes applying the different ways to think about a real world topic. The writing of the previous parts of the essay are a perfect demonstration of this. For instance, in class this semester, there has been a stress on making connections between things that seem to be unrelated; however, as you dig deeper, you can start to find subtle connections. In my analysis of the Facilities and Heating Plant services, I made connections between their work and my education. On the surface, it would seem the Facilities Services responsibility of giving us “safe, reliable, aesthetically pleasing building and ground” would have very little to do with my ability to learn about plant functions in biology. However, by applying the techniques of making connections, I was able to recognize that they provide us with an environment that fosters my ability to learn. This connection was made by applying my knowledge from class to the real world, which is the goal of integrative learning. It is important to understand that integrative learning comes in all shapes and sizes, even if it takes a little imagination.

Overall, it can be said that making the connections previously discussed is not always easy and often requires a certain degree of imagination. Connecting the Geneseo facilities services and heating plant to our education seemed like a stretch. Fortunately, when utilizing the lessons learned from integrative learning, we are encouraged to find subtle similarities, specifically between the classroom and the outside world, that our minds can put together. Furthermore, when applying integrative learning specifically to INTD-105, all semester we created these comparisons before even knowing what it was called. Comparisons which opened our minds to a form of innovativeness that was unbeknownst to us before the class. When applied correctly, it gives students a sense of purpose. That being said, it can easily be concluded that students will become more willing to be involved in their education when able to connect it to other parts of their lives. These associations allow the student to find purpose in their education, something that is often lost in their minds. For this reason, integrative learning is incredibly important to our education.

As college students, we are given vast amounts of information about everything from scholarships to changes in clubs and programs. When you factor in our academic responsibilities, the vast topics of discussion among the college administration can become quite overwhelming. While greatly impacting our academic and daily lives, it is not always reasonable to expect us to be able to have well informed opinions on every one of these topics. On occasion it is best to delegate these decisions to someone we trust. For instance, the transition to online education has led to many tough decisions. Yet, I trust the college because it is run by well-educated staff that specialize in making the best decisions for us as college students. The President of SUNY Geneseo, Denise Battles writes in an email addressed to the students, “We believe these difficult decisions represent the best way to minimize the potential spread of the virus within the campus community and keep everyone as safe and healthy as possible.” The statement shows that SUNY Geneseo’s mission is to make decisions with the student in mind, further exemplifying why us students have trust in the system. While it is still important to stay relatively informed on these matters, sometimes it is best to leave it to the professionals; a lesson learned by the investigative character, Gan, in the story “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler. In Butler’s story, the teenager is put in a position to make a very adultlike decision, on a matter of which he doesn’t fully understand; the impregnation of the males in his own species by the Tlic. He does his best to educate himself, but he does not fully understand the gravity of his decision. His relationship with the persuasive character, T’Gatoi, shows many similarities to the one shared between a student and their school. T’Gatoi has a position of power that allows her to fully understand the situation that Gan is too naive to accept. Gan realizes in the end that this decision is bigger than himself. As a college student, I find Gan’s ability to trust T’Gatoi very similar to the trust I have in my college. Knowing when to delegate a decision is extremely important in order to get through life. Yet, knowing who to put your trust in is even more important.

In the story, Gan must make an incredibly difficult decision for someone of his age to make. The decision about the impregnation, however, is of much greater consequence than he realizes. Part of this is due to his inexperience in the world; Gan has only recently come of age of maturity, according to the definitions of adulthood in his society. He judges the situation at hand with the experiences and information he has received up to that point. Unfortunately, this includes the witness of a botched birth. When the Tlic mother is not present for the birth, it is an extremely painful, and gruesome experience for the Terran. With this image in mind, Gan is terrified which leads him to make the decision of not going through with his own birth. In his own words, “I knew birth was painful and bloody, no matter what. But this was something else, something worse. And I wasn’t ready to see it. Maybe I never would be.” As a college student, I can relate this back to my own experiences of enrolling in college itself. I utilized various sources to gather the information I could on the college. For example, from this excerpt from the Geneseo mission statement, “The entire College community works together to advance knowledge and inspire students to be socially responsible and globally aware citizens who are prepared for an enriched life and success in the world.”, I was able to generalize the college’s expectations of a student. After visiting a great deal of other websites, I was able to get a good understanding of how the college is run. However, after coming to college, there are new concerns that I didn’t know to look at before. Such as, do the building have air conditioning? How is stress and depression among students dealt with? How are exams split up? After being enrolled at SUNY Geneseo for almost two semesters, the concerns I had before enrolling and after enrolling are different due to my experiences, similar to Gan. I have my opinions on how all of those questions should be answered, yet there is obviously information that I’m missing in order to make a good choice. This is where students benefit from the expertise of college officials.

 The trust put into the college officials is due to their ability to make the best decisions for us students. In Gan’s case, his “college official” is represented by T’Gatoi. T’Gatoi is a Tlic politician who possesses information that Gan is missing in order to make the smart decision. While the Tlic do use the Terran for the birth of their offspring, the Terran also need the Tlic for protection on their alien planet. As Gan puts it, “Only she (T’Gatoi) and her political faction stood between us and the hordes who did not understand why there was a Preserve.” T’Gatoi makes decisions for the Terran people in their best interest, even though the humans, especially Gan, do not see it this way. T’Gatoi’s ability to weigh the risks and rewards of the rules in place comes from her vast knowledge of the topic. For this reason, she was chosen to be the political leader of the relations between the Terran and the Tlic. College officials are similar in this way. These officials are hired for their ability to think out the options and using their vast knowledge on topics that regard college students. As previously mentioned, the transition to online school has been uncharted territory for everyone. The college has been put in charge of lessening the impact on our education, while ensuring everyone is taken care of. In order to do so, the college needed to weigh out their options and make important decisions, even if they are unpopular. One of these unpopular decisions was to not allow people to come back to campus unless absolutely necessary. As students, we see this as extremely unfair considering we paid for room and board. Nonetheless, the decision to not allow students to come back was made for our own good. The college recognized the risks, which included the fear of spreading the disease, and compared them with the rewards of allowing students to come back. The outcome of the debate was that it was not a good idea. The college recognized that they would receive backlash from this decision; nonetheless, it was still the right decision. To keep the students somewhat happy, they transferred our room and board to next semester.  The trust I have in the system comes from this ability to make the tough decisions. As Denise Battles, the president of SUNY Geneseo, puts it,  “the safety and well-being of our college community continues to be our highest priority.”

T’Gatoi and the Geneseo college officials gain the trust of Gan and the students, respectively, by showing concern for their success in life. There is a degree of tough love in both situations, but in the end the decisions were made for our own good. As young, inexperienced persons in our societies, it is not always possible for us to see the bigger picture. With the limited experiences we have in comparison to T’Gatoi and the college officials, we need to know when to listen to the people we trust. However, the importance of choosing the right people to trust may be the most important lesson of all. Gan came to realize that T’Gatoi only wants what’s best for him, which is why he took her advice to go through with the pregnancy at the end of the story. The lessons learned by Gan can be used by every college student in regards to the academic partnership between them and their college.

As college students, showing adversity in times of hardship has become fairly repetitious in our lives. It seems as if the survival of each battle precedes a new, even more difficult, challenge. To stay on top, we must be prepared to weigh out our every option; no matter what life throws our way. This particular ability is especially evident in a character from “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler. The character Gan is faced with a challenge that truly tests him as a person. As a teenager, he is put in a position to make a very adultlike decision, on a matter of which he doesn’t fully understand. There are many pressures from others that influence his decision-making, which is why Gan must decide who it is he can trust. To do this, there are a number of tactics he employs, such as: consulting others, doing research, and thinking in the long term. This may be a fictitious world, yet I feel there are many lessons to be learned from Gan’s character. As a college student, I must also make choices of similar severity; fortunately, with less alien probing involved. It seems as if it was only yesterday I was a senior in highschool. Now I’m forming my life, one semester at a time and the decisions I make will follow me for the rest of life. In order to make sure I am making the right decisions, I employ a similar methods to Gan as stated earlier. From the articles and other literature reviewed in the INTD 105 course, I have utilized a number of them to become informed on decisions that affect my life. For example, the Geneseo Student Handbook, which is a book that enlists all of the rules and regulations that the College Board deems necessary. This book has a huge impact on a student’s day-to-day life, yet it still seems most students nowadays are ill informed, even with all of the information within their reach. It is impossible to make the best decision on these problems faced by students without knowing all of the information available. In this way, as a population, we are being led down a path similar to the one in “Bloodchild”, one where our decisions are not our own. This being said, the relationship between Gan and T’Gatoi, with a little imagination, is similar to the one between a student and their college. 

Throughout Olivia Butler’s story, we are slowly made aware of the situation Gan finds himself in. In short, T’Gatoi’s species (Tlic) relies on that of Gan’s (Terran) to reproduce. In return, the Terran are allowed to live under the protection of the Tlic. As a teenager, Gan is kept in the dark about what really happens when a Tlic impregnates a Terran in order to spare him. This is not his fault, it is society’s fault.  Gan soon realizes that he had little choice in the matter as people long before him had come to an agreement that led to this relationship between the species. Something us students deal with regularly. We must follow rules put into place by our college officials. Be that as it may, sometimes it’s good to question the authority. Gan realized this and began to educate himself on the matter to be able to think from both perspectives. Unfortunately, certain information was withheld in order to protect him until he was of age. Who decided that this was a good idea? T’Gatoi, and she had her reasons, even if Gan couldn’t yet understand. Gan had to trust that T’Gatoi was doing what was best for him. Similar to how students must trust their college to make the right decisions in regards to the student’s wellbeing. With the lack of information however, Gan had failed to see this. T’Gatoi was put into a position that many colleges are put into on a regular basis. She must make decisions to benefit the population as a whole. Even when it will be at the expense of some. Which means some people will have to make sacrifices. In this case, the Tlic “wanted more of us (Terran) made available” to house their eggs. It would seem to the Tlic that this would make things easier. However,  it simply was unethical to do to the Terran. The Tlic and the Terran had a mutualistic relationship meaning they had to please everyone within reason. T’Gatoi, as an elder to Gan, decided it was for his best that he be spared the details. As a student, I understand that sometimes what I don’t know won’t kill me. Teenagers are constantly spared the full detail in order to protect them. While I’m sure the people hiding it have their reasons, I feel as one being protected, that I don’t want to be protected from the real problems. It is actually doing us a disservice as we can’t form educated opinions. It is impossible to act in a meaningful way when you are not given all of the information. Especially on a decision that can affect one’s life forever. The omission of a fact still constitutes lying. After a lie is told and discovered, it is impossible for there to be a regular degree of trust between the two parties. The Geneseo’s student code of conduct states as following, “The College is committed to a goal of student maturity and self-direction.” Yet, it has been made evident that we are not being told everything. The college is constantly making decisions that affect us without our knowledge. This does not make me feel very mature. Wouldn’t it make sense to include the students in the decision making since it’s affecting our lives? What would we even do with the information? The latter question was asked by Gan to himself. Maybe the information is too much for us to bear. In his case, the information was too much to bear after he watched what really happens during birth. But what happened after proved my point. Gan started to see his problem from the other side. In the end, he was able to come to his own realization that there was no other way. This is an extremely important ability to have in the real world. Without it, you are missing out on potentially half of the information. As students, we have a responsibility to see from the point of view from others and form an educated evaluation.

Both Gan and students alike, everyone should stay informed. The choices we make at this point in our lives have a lasting effect, so they better be damn good decisions. It’s impossible to make good decisions when you can’t see a problem from someone else’s shoes. I believe it is just as important to understand your own perspective as it is another’s. Maybe they know something you don’t.  The solution to a problem may make perfect sense to one and make absolutely no sense to another. There will always be another perspective to a problem and it’s our jobs to open our minds to the possibility that we might not always be right. Nonetheless, nobody’s perfect. The best thing we can do for ourselves is stay educated, listen to others opinions, and think in the long term in addition to the short term.

The epigraph is a thought provoking quote from Octavia Butler’s, Bloodchild, that has a deep meaning behind it. The quote is of a conversation between two characters with one of them being in a more powerful position. The one in the lesser position is attempting to gain the trust of the more powerful character. This got me thinking about how I am put into similar situations quite often in my own life. It is required of me to weigh the risks with the rewards to make decisions about the people I decide to trust. In the real world, the social structure requires us to evaluate these certain situations almost on a day-to-day basis. This could be trusting my group for a class project; or perhaps gaining the trust of a boss to get him to rely on me. The unfortunate fact is, trust is not something that is handed out freely, nor should it be. Yet, in order to succeed in today’s world, it is nearly impossible to do it alone. I believe it is important to learn ways to be able to rely on, be relied upon, and be a good judge of the degree of trust that should be given to others. Mastering this technique can lead to an easier life.

Trust is a complex bond between two or more reliable people. In order for the relationship to be successful, the trust must be reciprocated by all parties. Since going to college, I have formed many of these relationships with my professors. In order to do so, I have selected to take certain classes with professors that I concluded based on the research I could do, that they were all good and fair teachers. It is expected that teachers put in a great deal of time and energy into teaching each class; it is hard to be dedicated to class when the professor doesn’t care. The extensive information given to us through the syllabus shows that you care about your students. Everything I could want or need in reference to the class is within access. You even go above and beyond, for example, including sections in the syllabus about mental health and food security. You making my life easier makes me want to work harder and with more purpose. This specific type of trusting relationship is usually validated by the commitment to the class by both the professor and the student. This is why picking out the right school and teachers is so important. I trusted my school to provide me with the best education available; which is the reason I am okay with paying them so much money. Another trusting relationship formed in college is with your classmates. In class, when we were put into groups and told to discuss a certain topic, it made it possible for me to get first impressions of my classmates. These first impressions have aided me in deciding who are the most trustworthy people in the class to ask for assistance which is incredibly important to my success. For instance, in a group project, everyone in the group relies on each other to put in the work. If one person does not do their part, the rest of the group suffers. I must trust that they are going to do the right thing. If I can’t trust them to do that, then I must rely on the fear of getting a bad grade or not being picked for another group project usually gets everyone to do their work. 

Another place trust is important in is the workplace. I personally have worked in two different places. My first job was in a greenhouse. I was young and inexperienced. For instance, I was not always the most reliable person to be on time. Yet, I was still a dedicated, hard working employee. However, due to the little things, like being late, my boss had begun to trust me less. As a consequence it would be harder to get days off, I started to be given tasks that others didn’t want to do, and it made my job much harder. Eventually, I quit this job. I had realized that the lack of trust between my boss and I made it harder for both of us. My bosses lack of trust in me meant that he had to keep a closer eye on me. Oppositely, the lack of trust led to a harder job for me; it was a lose-lose situation. It made me realize how important it was for an employer to trust an employee. This not only benefited the employer, but it benefited the employee as well which I had experienced in my second job. My second job at a pizza place called Pesci’s Pizza. For this job I was older and more determined to impress my boss. I was on time everyday, I always did my work ensuring both quality and quantity, and I tried to have a good attitude about it. Soon my boss began to trust me with more and more responsibilities, and I trusted my boss more and more. He started giving me authority over others, along with other perks such as: making it easier to take off, easier to move my shifts around, and getting nice holiday bonuses. I always trusted him to pay me on time, give me fair hours, and other things that made it more fun and easy to work there. As seen in my first job, the lack of trust leads to a more difficult time for everyone; whether it’s my boss having to keep an extra eye on me, or not being able to give me tasks that require more trust. As seen in my second job, the trust between me and my boss led to a more enjoyable work experience. Both me and my boss are rewarded for the trust we have for each other. This relates back to class in many ways. I believe if I was to form a trusting relationship with my professors, it would be a lot easier to obtain the necessary help required to do well in the class. From my personal experience, having a good relationship with your teacher leads to me being more successful in the class which is why it’s so important to trust them. Even though these relationships are with someone with more power than myself, we can both benefit from the relationship.

Trust is one of the most important qualities in a person. There are endless benefits to be had from a relationship built around trust. Whether it is a boss, a professor, a significant other, or simply a friend or family member. Both parties will profit from the reliance on another. Of course there is a risk taken when forming such a relationship, which is why I must be careful in choosing the degree of trust put in a person.

The epigraph is a thought provoking quote from Octavia Butler’s, Bloodchild, that has a deep meaning behind it. The quote is of a conversation between two characters with one of them being in a more powerful position. The one in the lesser position is attempting to gain the trust of the more powerful character. However, notably, there is mention of  a great deal of risk involved, which could work both ways. It is my job to weigh the risks with the rewards to make decisions about the people I decide to trust. In the real world, I am constantly being but into this situation with the new people that I meet. This could be trusting my group for a class project; or perhaps gaining the trust of a boss to let him rely on my. The fact is that trust is not something that is handed out freely, nor should it be. Yet, I am constantly forced to trusting others in order to succeed. I believe is important to learn ways to be able to gain the trust of others, and be a good judge of the degree of trust that should be given to others. Mastering this technique will lead to an easier life.

Trust is a complex bond between two or more people reliable people. In order for trust to work it must be felt by all parties. Currently, I am constantly forming new relationships that warrant a certain degree of trust.. These varying levels of relationships have aided my transition into college. Simply relying on the school to look out for my well-being took trust. A more personal relationship would be with my professors. I have selected to take certain classes with professors that I concluded based on the research I could do, that they were all good and fair teachers. It is expected that teachers put in a great deal of time and energy into teaching each class; it is hard to be dedicated to class when the professor doesn’t care. The extensive information given to us through the syllabus shows that you care about your students. Everything I could want or need in reference to the class is within access. You even go above and beyond, for example, including sections in the syllabus about mental health and food security. You making my life easier makes me want to work harder and with more purpose. This is why picking out the right school and teachers is so important. I trusted my school to provide me with the best education available; which is the reason I am okay with paying them so much money. Another trusting relationship formed in college are with your classmates. In class, when we were put into groups and told to discuss a certain topic, it was possible for me to get first impressions of my classmates. These first impressions have aided me in deciding who are the most trustworthy people in the class to ask for assistance which is incredibly important to my success. For instance, in a group project, everyone in the group relies on each other to put in the work. If one person does not do there part, the rest of the group suffers. I must trust that they are going to do the right thing. If I can’t do that, then I rely on the fear of getting a bad grade or not being picked for another group project usually gets everyone to do their work. 

Another place trust is important in is the workplace. I personally have worked in two different places. My first job was in a greenhouse. I was young and inexperienced in the workplace; yet, I was still a good worker. However, I was not always the most reliable person to be on time. My boss had begun to trust me less as a consequence. It would be harder to get days off, I started to have to do the stuff others didn’t want to do, and it made my job much harder. Eventually, I quit this job. I had realized that the lack of trust between my boss and I made it harder for both of us. My bosses lack of trust in me meant that he had to keep a closer eye on me. Oppositely, the lack of trust led to a harder job for me; it was a lose-lose situation. Onto my second job at a pizza place called Pesci’s Pizza. For this job I was older and more determined to impress my boss. I was on time everyday, I always did my work ensuring both quality and quantity, and I tried to have a good attitude about it. Soon my boss began to trust me with more and more responsibilities, and I trusted my boss more and more. He started giving me authority over others, along with other perks such as: making it easier to take off, easier to move my shifts around, and getting nice holiday bonuses. I always trusted him to pay me on time, give me fair hours, and other things that made it more fun and easy to work there. This relates back to class in a few ways. I believe if I was to form a trusting relationship with my professors, it would be a lot easier to obtain the necessary help required to do well in the class. From my personal experience, having a good relationship with your teacher leads to me being more successful in the class which is why it’s so important to trust them. Even though these relationships are with someone with more power than myself, we both benefit from the relationship.

Trust is one of the most important qualities in a person. There are endless benefits to be had from a relationship built around trust. Whether it is a boss, a professor, a significant other, or simply a friend or family member. Both parties will profit from the reliance on another. Of course there is a risk taken when forming such a relationship, which is why I must be careful in choosing the degree of trust put in a person.