Listening Exercise

I experienced this exercise at a local drugstore while I waited for a prescription. It was hard to focus on a lot of sounds around me because one of the pharmacy technicians had a very loud voice. She was on the phone for much of the time that I was there. I learned to tune her out though and focus on the other things. I heard a familiar ding as customers pulled up to the drive up window; as a bank teller, I hear the ding of the call button in my sleep. I heard the fuzzy conversations between the pharmacist and the drive up client and the beeps of the cash register. The phone rang several times when I was there. I focused beyond the area of the pharmacy and listened as two employees stocked shelves. I could hear them moving boxes around and discussing where to move the merchandise. Other shoppers with children walked by, the mother warning the child to stop acting up or she was going to the car. Employees paged one another over the loudspeaker. The woman sitting next to me called her husband on her cell phone and loudly complained about the price of her prescription.

I was surprised that I could still hear some outside sounds when the pharmacy workers turned on the microphone to speak with the drive up clients. The drugstore is located near a busy intersection so I heard car horns and squealing tires.

When I opened my eyes, the visuals that went along with the sounds were what I expected. The pharmacy staff was working very hard, some on the phone and others filling orders. The mother who was scolding her child looked stressed, as I imagine that she was.

Before doing this exercise, I never realized how much my senses work together. I usually tune out sound if I have something to look at, like my cell phone. I’m more of a visual learner so I tend to use my eyes more than my ears. Focusing on sound alone was good for me since it’s a detail that I usually miss.