Students answer questions about their thoughts on healthy relationships in a journal at DPC Aware's event "Hashing Out the Gray" at the Downtown Phoenix Campus on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014. The participants were asked to tear out their questions and toss their questions across the room for other students to read. (Photo by Alexis Macklin)
Students discussed relationship boundaries Tuesday at an interactive event that featured games, discussion and free gelato at the Downtown campus.
Health solutions junior Teresa Aguilera, a Downtown Phoenix Campus Aware member, said the event aimed to give students a different view of relationships.
"It's just a good way to reflect on your own relationships," she said.
DPC Aware, which hosted the event, said healthy relationships is one topic in a wide range of topics it is focusing on this year, Aguilera said.
The event sparked conversation about healthy and unhealthy relationships, both romantic and friendly.
A red light, green light game was one activity the students played. Everyone closed their eyes and stood in a line. Tourism sophomore Victoria De Saint-Erne, a DPC Aware member, read statements about relationships.
Students played "red light, green light" at DPC Aware's "Hashing Out the Gray" at the Downtown Phoenix Campus on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014. Students stepped forward if they agreed with the statement read aloud about relationships. (Photo by Alexis Macklin)
If students agreed with the statement, they took two steps forward. If they somewhat agreed, they took one step. And if they did not agree at all, they took no steps.
Statements De Saint-Erne read included, "It's OK for a friend or significant other to text me over 100 times a day," and "It's OK to try and change your friend or partner to be more ideal."
At the end of the activity, students discussed the different questions and talked about their own personal boundaries when it came to the statements.
"It's OK that everyone's boundaries are different," De Saint-Erne said. "It's important to communicate what your boundaries are."
Students also played a paper toss game where they wrote what they thought healthy and unhealthy relationships were, crumpled up the paper, tossed the balls across the room and unraveled them and read the descriptions aloud.
Students wrote that a healthy relationship includes having trust, honesty, respect and fairness. Popular answers for unhealthy relationships including being selfish and unequal.
Two students talked about their own experiences with destructive relationships while the students ate gelato.
Nonprofit leadership and management senior Erika Green spoke about her relationship with a former boyfriend and how it escalated from controlling whom she texted to physical abuse.
"Everything was perfect until it really wasn't," she said.
This was only the second time Green told the story in public. She said it is important for people to stay honest with themselves and have a self-discussion about boundaries.
"As soon as you feel uncomfortable, that first moment is when you should say something," she said.
Reach the reporter at savannah.harrelson@asu.edu and follow her on Twitter @savannahleeh
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