My Physical Assessment

The first portion of my physical assessment will deal with my body and body language. When I stand still, my weight is usually placed more on my right leg than my left. I tend to shift my weight to both feet while I stand, though. I am centered in my hips and shoulders; those are the portions of my body that really carry the weight. When I stand, I tend to let one foot rest in front of me and the other carry the weight, usually on my right foot. I usually have excellent posture unless I’m feeling tired or grouchy. I am unsure if just one part of my body dominates or draws focus to it more than any other parts of my body; people usually look at my face more than anything (of course, I could say the male half of our species looks elsewhere and also be correct). When I sit, I tend to recline into the chair, maintaining my posture – just simply leaning back. If I am sitting on the floor, however, I slouch forward. I don’t really lean when I sit. Sometimes, I cross my legs at the knees lingeringly, or even sometimes at the ankles. I rest my hands on my lap or on my abdomen, whichever feels the most comfortable at the time. I generally keep all my body parts to myself. I like to keep myself confined to my chair and the little space that encompasses it. I don’t try to relax and just “let it all hang out”. My spine curves when I sit due to my reclining in the chair. My neck also curves, craning slightly forward or to the side. I usually have a calm, sedate look on my face. When I’m not calm or sedate, I usually look intense, pleased, or impatient. If I’m listening to a lecture, I usually go from calm to intense to impatient. If I’m at home relaxing, I’m always pleased. I usually can hold eye contact with someone for about ten seconds before looking away, give or take the person. I tend to let my eyes wander about as I nod my head to what they’re saying. I also have a tendency to look at the ground or the ceiling. I’m very intense when I look into peoples’ eyes; perhaps that’s why I’m not inclined to keep eye contact all the time. I usually open my eyes wider when looking into their eyes. My eyebrows move when I talk as do my lips. I speak with my face often times. My reactions are quick and sudden. I smile and make other facial movements suddenly as opposed to slowly expanding my reactions. My face is very lively and open. I can be read like an open book! My movements are pretty fast. I’m ever changing and different with my range of movements. My steps are heavy when I walk; I make full contact with the ground. I’m very rhythmical when I walk, so much so that it appears that I’m always walking to a beat of some sort. I’m usually fast but steady depending on where I need to be. When I’m walking, my feet curve to hit the ground. The result is that you can barely ever hear me walking. I always prepare my motions by adjusting my shirt, smoothing out my pants, or adjusting my backpack on my shoulders. I settle into standing still after I stop moving. I’m always moving a part of my body, whether I’m shifting back and forth between legs or brushing my hair back with a flick of my hand. Before I sit, I reach down with my hands to support myself. I usually grab railings when I walk down stairs, but I never touch walls when I round a corner. I’m very smooth and continuous about my movements, never jerky or abrupt. I try to approach someone or something as unobvious as possible. I like to be able to walk up to someone and they not know it until they turn around and actually see me. I’ll take an indirect route to try to not attract attention to myself. I gesture rather short with my arms and hands. I don’t tend to wave my arms around or be open in that sort of way. My gestures are sporadic and used only to accentuate a strong point I may be making while I speak. The gestures I do make are pretty typical of others, but I have a few that are unique to me. I bite my lower lip, put my hand to my chin, scrunch my nose, play with my earlobes (and earrings at times), and bite the caps of my pens whether they’re metal or not. I also twirl my hair if I’m wearing it down that day. Most of my movements are abstract, but if I’m really trying to get a point across, I’ll gesture fluidly and methodically as if to weave a story with my movements. When I make points in my conversation, I find that I crane my neck. I’m more of a neck and arm gesturer than anything else.
My voice is rather hard to describe especially because it is somewhat hard to listen to one’s self. The tone of my voice is very slightly gravelly but still medium in pitch. My voice isn’t high, but it isn’t low either. The feeling of my voice could be best described by the words “melodical” and “purring”, according to one of my long time friends. I think I resonate most in either my chest or my pharynx, though I’m really not sure. I don’t speak super fast, but I do speak quickly and sometimes people have a hard time understanding what I say (especially if I’m excited – then I speak at light speed). If I’m talking about a nice, mellow topic my rate slows with my movements; however, if I’m talking about a subject I’m really excited or angry about, I’ll speak quickly, louder, and with more quick gestures. I use different tempos in my voice with different things I talk about. I don’t particularly stress certain words unless they’re pertinent to the conversation. I speak as if I’m writing something. I take pauses where a period or comma would be appropriate as if I were speaking a sentence out of a book. The overall impression of my voice would be smooth when I’m relaxed or just having a casual conversation and heated when I’m in debate or talking about something that upsets me. I pronounce everything clearly and articulate well. That is, of course, unless I’m talking about something that makes me excited. Then, I spout off a million words a minute and it’s hard to articulate all the words I say. Some words challenge me with their distinct sounds such as my last name “Wilt”. I have a hard time saying the “wi” part of it. I also have the tendency to leave the ending “g” sound off of words if I’m tired, such as “I’m goin’ to the store.” I speak in more of a Northern American dialect. I say words like “coupon” as “cue pon” and “orange” as “ore ahnge” where some of my western compatriots might say “coo pon” and “are ahnge”. I’m very good with accents and silly voices. I can mimic any accent (almost!) after listening to the person speaking for a while. I like to practice my accents while in public places where no one will recognize me. If I hear it, I can do it. My voice is in the pretty average range as far as pitch. I think my voice still has a bit of youth to it, but I’m not overly high pitched. I change the pitch of my voice with different thoughts, ideas, and expressions so that if you graphed the pitch of my voice, you’d find that it’s in all different areas. My voice will dip down very slightly in pitch, but I tend to stay in the top half of range. I have excellent range on my voice (I can sing soprano and alto), but when speaking I choose the top half. I’m always well heard as far as volume. I can project clearly across a room. My voice just seems to have that natural quality that allows it to travel across a room to be heard. I’m sensitive to different volume levels in that I know what’s comfortable for most people to hear me at. I’ll try to mimic the other person’s volume level to allow them comfort when listening to me. My language is very formal. Like I said, I talk like I’m in the process of reading a sentence out of a book. I make use of my extensive vocabulary. I’m not likely to say “Show me the money!” or “What up, yo?” or any of the other catch phrases the people of my generation have coined today. I certainly talk distinctly with the words I choose and the ways I express myself through my voice. I sometimes have a sarcastic way with my words, which are typical of me. Because of theatre, I’ve eliminated the stalling sounds out of my vocabulary such as “uhm…” and “uh…” I do say “hmmm…” when contemplating something meaningful or something that I’ve got to really think about. I sigh inaudibly through my nose. I also sort of “purr” in a way that no one can hear me. I don’t always like to attract attention to myself. My laughter is explosive and I giggle a lot.
And that's me.

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