Change

It is crazy to think that two years ago I graduated from high school. This may not seem like that long for a lot of you, but for me it seems like an eternity. 

 

 I was reflecting today on how my life has changed in the last two years. Even in the last year, I feel like I have become a completely different person. I feel like I am not the same Amy that got up and gave a speech at graduation. I am not the same Amy that worked at Arby's. I am not the same Amy who finished up her Freshman year of college. This is the new Amy. Amy 2.0 if you will.

Why was I reflecting on this, you ask? Today was Y-Group Leader Training for Summer NSO. It made me think back to last Fall's Y-Group Leader Training. I was a new mentor and felt very inadequate. I was shy and nervous. I felt like I couldn't be a peer mentor. I had just gone through Fall Training with all of these absolutely brilliant mentors. Why had I even been hired? I still wonder this sometimes, but looking back to who I was a year ago I see that my supervisors must have seen some sort of potential. They must have seen that I could have a growth mindset and be a good mentor. They saw that they could mold me into what a mentor should be. As I went to YGL training today, I felt like a new person. I remembered that Amy 1.0 from last year. If she only knew what changes would come from taking this job, I think that she might have been a little more confident. If only she knew...

This job has changed me. I am a completely new person. I feel like I am a better student, a better mentor, a better mentee, and overall a better person. I am grateful everyday for my opportunity to work with Freshman Mentoring. I wonder who I would be if I had not been shoved so far above my comfort zone.

So you can change. But how does change come about? Change does not happen overnight. It takes days, weeks, months, years to change. For me, I had to go out of my comfort zone. I think that is how all change has to take place. You have to be willing to change. You won't change if you stay being the same person who you are right now. It just won't happen.

With my job, we often talk about this thing called a growth mindset. This comes from an insightful book called Mindset by Carol S. Dweck. I highly recommend it to anyone.

"When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world. In one world--the world of fixed traits--success is about proving you're smart or talented. Validating yourself. If the other--the world of changing qualities--it's about stretching yourself to learn something new. Developing yourself."

 This book is all about how to get into the growth mindset. Something that allows you to grow and change.  I recognize that my change only came when I had a growth mindset. I could have allowed myself to quit. I told myself multiple times "I can't do this." I really did not believe that I could. However, I made my decision that I was going to be a mentor and I had to stick with it. Something had to change. I had to change.

I am constantly changing. I am constantly needing to have a growth mindset about everything. School, Work, Family, Dating. Everything.

So when you think that you can't change, you are right. When you think you can't do something, you are right. But you can change. You can!

 It is great to see where you have come to see where you are going. I hope that I have helped changed you for the better.
I truly believe that every person we meet, every experience we go through, each day that we live on the earth changes us. I am a different person than I was yesterday. To quote Wicked "Because I knew you, I have been changed for good."

This post has been all over the place, I am sorry. I just love the opportunity to get my thoughts out into something more real then my head.

This is my life.
Come what may and love it!