After doing some critical reflection on how much has happened during this school year and throughout this year, I've come to realize how much I have grown and changed as a person. With this being my senior year, a lot has happened for me in terms of me planning for my future, as well as enjoying every moment of my senior year. After ending a long journey of looking at colleges, filling out applications, and waiting patiently (or impatiently) for acceptance or rejection letters, I can officially say that it is all over now that I have committed to one school-VCU!!
I used to think that choosing the right college for me would be an easier process, until I was faced with many different challenges and warnings about the school I used to want to go to. Family and friends of mine all told me not to consider going to Radford, but at first I felt that they didn't know what they were talking about. I kept telling myself that I was right all along and I would somehow prove them wrong about it--until I found out that there was some truth to what they had been saying all along.
That was when, after hearing from two people that I should consider VCU, which originally was just another school I applied to to have more options, became a consideration. I went onto their website, looked at their clubs, looked up vegan restaurants in Richmond, and immediately did a complete 180. I already had better feelings about this school even though I had never visited it.
About two weeks waiting almost desperately for a letter from VCU, I come home from school on Monday, March 12 to receive a thick envelope from them with my name on it. I race down the drive way, swing open the garage door and tear open the envelope to find a a VCU bumper sticker and a letter. My heart is racing and adrenaline pumps through my veins as I begin reading "Perhaps it is my greatest pleasure in welcoming students to Virginia's most dynamic university."
After notifying people that I had been accepted (via my snapchat story and my mom telling some relatives), I began to realize that maybe this was the school for me. However, I still needed to visit it to get a taste of what it was all about. So, later in the week, on Friday, I went on a campus tour of VCU. After one visit, I could already tell that this was a much better match for me.
The urban environment, the amount of vegan options that were available, and the diversity were what attracted me most to VCU. Just reading these signs allowed me to be more honest with myself than I had ever been about a big decision. It was almost as if the school was mirroring my exact thoughts and beliefs about who I am, which was how I knew it was the right one for me.
What This Experience Has Taught Me
1. Do not solely go by your feelings when making a big decision like this. Use your logic and reasoning skills.
2. Before deciding what is the right school for you, have an idea of what you are looking for in a school and compare with other schools to see what matches with what you want in a school the most.
3. Be patient. These types of decisions take time.
4. Be honest with yourself. If a school that you might like at first doesn't have what you need, it's okay to say it isn't for you.
4. Don't have your heart set on one school until you're ready to commit. Have some options, because your top choice can change (just like mine did!).
5. Do not tell a lot of people about where you want to go until you are getting closer to committing.
6. Just enjoy it! The whole process of filling out college applications might not be that exciting, but visiting schools, reading reviews online, learning more about the school, and researching the city or town it's located in can be.
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Saturday, March 3, 2018
What Failure and Rejection Have Taught Me
Have you ever wanted something so badly, that when you fail at attaining it, you become miserable? Because, me too. We've all been there when yearning for something and that when we don't get it, it feels like our world has turned upside-down. Like there's nothing to hold on for. However, failure and rejection don't need to be viewed as a life threatening experience. In fact, I'm about to share with you how I came to look at them as life changing experiences.
The last time I experienced rejection, which was about a month ago, I was devastated. I was really hoping this thing would work out, but due to other reasons, it didn't. "Am I good enough?" and "I shouldn't have said anything" kept spinning around in my head as I began to closely examine my new and altered reality.
I let myself dwell on this issue for a couple days, until one day I told myself to get over it. I had enough of feeling sorry for myself. This might have been a little too harsh, but it was necessary in order for me to allow the healing process to begin. That was when I began to learn from these unpleasant experiences.
Looking carefully at what had happened, I can now say that this rejection was meant to happen. If it weren't, it wouldn't have happened. I say this because I believe that everything happens for a reason. Realizing this allowed me to accept that just because I had failed at attaining what I was hoping for, I had actually won in the sense that I got what I needed.
Failure and rejection do not happen to us, but for us. This goes for anything in life. They happen to teach us to work harder, learn from our mistakes, and to reevaluate what we did wrong. This was what happened to me. I got rejected because I needed to experience not getting what I wanted so that I can have something better in the future.
So, I have been fortunate enough to experience rejection and failure in a lot of aspects in my life, but the one I had experienced last month really taught me to think carefully and be very present. I hope that I receive something better in place of what I had wanted before, so that I can follow up with this and provide some of you with hope that rejection and failure are really not the worst things to occur.
The last time I experienced rejection, which was about a month ago, I was devastated. I was really hoping this thing would work out, but due to other reasons, it didn't. "Am I good enough?" and "I shouldn't have said anything" kept spinning around in my head as I began to closely examine my new and altered reality.
I let myself dwell on this issue for a couple days, until one day I told myself to get over it. I had enough of feeling sorry for myself. This might have been a little too harsh, but it was necessary in order for me to allow the healing process to begin. That was when I began to learn from these unpleasant experiences.
Looking carefully at what had happened, I can now say that this rejection was meant to happen. If it weren't, it wouldn't have happened. I say this because I believe that everything happens for a reason. Realizing this allowed me to accept that just because I had failed at attaining what I was hoping for, I had actually won in the sense that I got what I needed.
Failure and rejection do not happen to us, but for us. This goes for anything in life. They happen to teach us to work harder, learn from our mistakes, and to reevaluate what we did wrong. This was what happened to me. I got rejected because I needed to experience not getting what I wanted so that I can have something better in the future.
So, I have been fortunate enough to experience rejection and failure in a lot of aspects in my life, but the one I had experienced last month really taught me to think carefully and be very present. I hope that I receive something better in place of what I had wanted before, so that I can follow up with this and provide some of you with hope that rejection and failure are really not the worst things to occur.
What I Have Learned About Putting Myself Out There
When we think about putting ourselves out there, we tend to get scared-to hold ourselves back. But putting yourself out there should not be something to fear. in fact, it can be looked at as an opportunity to express who you are. Here's what I've learned about putting myself out there.
1. It's good to express what you want. If this means speaking up for something you are passionate about, at least you know that the power is in your hands. This way, you know that you've done your part by stating exactly what you want.
2. Trusting the process. After I've out myself out there, I like to believe that everything will work out. After all, I've done my part.
3. Accepting that I can't control everything. Once you do your part, the next thing you must do is accept that you can't control what happens next. This way, you prevent yourself from getting disappointed in case things don't work out.
4. Failure is always inevitable. After not having certain things work out in my life, I have learned this: There's always that risk of rejection and failure. Sometimes, things will not go your way, but accepting that that is just how things are makes it easier to move on.
5. Watching everything come together.
6. When you finally receive what you want, you will be so grateful you put yourself out there. There have been times where I haven't gone after what I wanted, and I regretted that. Putting in the work by putting yourself out there shows yourself that you are ready to achieve what you want.
1. It's good to express what you want. If this means speaking up for something you are passionate about, at least you know that the power is in your hands. This way, you know that you've done your part by stating exactly what you want.
2. Trusting the process. After I've out myself out there, I like to believe that everything will work out. After all, I've done my part.
3. Accepting that I can't control everything. Once you do your part, the next thing you must do is accept that you can't control what happens next. This way, you prevent yourself from getting disappointed in case things don't work out.
4. Failure is always inevitable. After not having certain things work out in my life, I have learned this: There's always that risk of rejection and failure. Sometimes, things will not go your way, but accepting that that is just how things are makes it easier to move on.
5. Watching everything come together.
6. When you finally receive what you want, you will be so grateful you put yourself out there. There have been times where I haven't gone after what I wanted, and I regretted that. Putting in the work by putting yourself out there shows yourself that you are ready to achieve what you want.
New Fitness Plan
I am dedicating this month to focus on my body. I tend to focus a lot on my thought patterns and controlling my emotions, but due to a goal I have in mind, I have decided to commit to figuring out what works well for me and what doesn't when it comes to having a fitness routine. While I had originally intended to use yoga as my main source of exercise, after doing some research and due to what I want to have changed about my body is what is leading me to want to try other things.
My main goal with this is to see how consistent I can be. Can I exercise 4-5 days a week and not give up? How about two or three? I want to see what I can do to make this process easier and more fun than just work.
When trying anything new, I don't like going into an experience with limiting beliefs. I like to be as open-minded as possible. If something doesn't feel good, I'll slow down, take a break, or stop it all together. If I feel like I'm restricting myself from food that really will not do me as much harm as I think it will, I will allow myself to have some of it. Pushing myself too hard and beating myself up for things that simply do not work for me or are out my control is not something that I will tolerate. Before focusing on what needs to change about my body, I need to make sure that my mind is in alignment with it.
I am trying to tell myself that trying new things doesn't need to be scary or dreadful. As much as I'd like this to be a learning experience for myself, I'd also like to figure out how I can find pleasure within this whole process. I want to find planning workouts and trying new exercises to be enjoyable rather than boring. Doing this will probably allow the process to go by much smoother.
This is going to be a gradual change for me. Learning when and how much time I'll need for exercising are sure to come up during the month. I can't wait to see what this brings me.
Updates will be coming.
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