Senior Year (2016-2017)
As I sit here and write this, I truly cannot believe that I have gotten to this point in my college career. Although I will not be calling myself an alumna of the University of Cincinnati until August, as my time draws closer to a close and my friends begin to make their futures their realities, I can't help but fondly reminisce on the incredible - but also difficult - year that I have had.
I was fortunate to serve as a Recruitment Director in the fall, specifically as a Co-Rho Gamma Director. I don't think any words can express how wonderful this experience was, so I can only attempt to explain it. I loved being a Rho Gamma with every fiber of my being, but had at times felt like the logistics were poorly planned, and the training was superficial and unhelpful. I had a goal to make the experience for future Rho Gammas better than it had been for me, as did the rest of our recruitment team. Our goal as a team was to improve the process and make recruitment more values-based, which we did through improving logistics, better training of Rho Gammas, and more thorough PNM education. I truly believe that we laid the stepping stones for recruitment to be improved by leaps and bounds in years to come. Although our hard work was met with endless criticism by those who didn't understand why we felt it was important to change the system, it was worth it.
I think one of the most important things that being on the Recruitment Team gave me was Panhellenic sisterhood. As women, it's ingrained in our minds that we must compete with other women to be "better." Better looking, better dressed, better everything. This false belief certainly extends to being in a sorority, where competition with other chapters can be commonplace, and at times, encouraged. While I held this false belief for far too long, being a Recruitment Director pushed me out of my comfort zone and gave me the opportunity to work with women from other chapters, who not only became my acquaintances, but some of my best friends.
Those friends were there to help me when I went through one of the most difficult times of my life in December. A week before Christmas, I lost my grandpa. He was strong, resilient, loving, and one of the most incredible people in the world. Losing a second grandparent in less than a year was difficult (I lost my other grandpa in April of 2016). There is a profound pain when you lose a grandparent. Your heart truly aches whenever you think of them no longer being at family gatherings, saying your name, or never again getting to see their face light up when they see you walk in the door for a surprise visit. Though it's been five months, my heart still feels that pain in the same raw way I did right after it happened. You never really get over their loss, and the pain comes in waves for the rest of your life. While the waves are manageable now, they nearly capsized me in the beginning. I'm fortunate to have had incredible support within my friends to weather the storm. I wouldn't relive this time in my life for anything, but it definitely revealed my inner strength and resiliency.
One of the most interesting aspects of my senior year has been my exploration of fields other than the one I previously considered to be my ultimate goal. I entered college as a Health Sciences major in the Pre-Physical Therapy track, switching to Pre-Occupational Therapy my sophomore year. Though I spent about two semesters exploring the possibility of switching majors, I never found anything that I loved more than health sciences. Some might consider my exploration of other fields indecisive and silly, but I'm so glad that I gave myself a chance to explore. It has helped me feel much more confident in my career decisions and life choices!
As I prepare to graduate, I find myself looking back on the person that I was four years ago when I began my academic career at the University of Cincinnati. While I haven't become an entirely different person, I have grown and flourished into a much more dynamic person. When I was 17, the thought of talking to strangers, being involved in multiple organizations, and holding a leadership position that required leading 65+ women would have seemed too scary. Now here I am, with experience speaking in front of 600 people, multiple leadership positions under my belt, and with a plethora of extracurricular campus involvement. I have an unrelenting determination to be able to look back at my life and know that I lived it exactly the way I wanted to, and to know I wouldn't change anything that I've done. My failures and the adversity I've faced in the past four years have only helped make me a better person.
Being at UC alone has pushed me out of my comfort zone. Growing up in a small town allowed me to stay in my bubble for far too long, but being surrounded by my peers from numerous cultures and backgrounds helped pop that bubble. I've become far more open-minded than I was previously, and I've developed beliefs that I never would have pictured myself having before. My growth while in college has been exponential.
I cannot even begin to wrap my mind around the fact that in just a few short weeks I will be a University of Cincinnati alumna. As cliche as it is, it feels like just yesterday I was preparing to move into Turner Hall to begin my freshman year. I can't imagine what my life will be like without attending class everyday and the stress of homework and my commitments to extracurriculars, but I'm ready to move on to this next chapter of my life and make the most of it. I can't thank the University of Cincinnati enough for all that it has brought me. This university will always be one of my favorite places in the world, and I will carry all the lessons I've learned here with me for the rest of my life.
I was fortunate to serve as a Recruitment Director in the fall, specifically as a Co-Rho Gamma Director. I don't think any words can express how wonderful this experience was, so I can only attempt to explain it. I loved being a Rho Gamma with every fiber of my being, but had at times felt like the logistics were poorly planned, and the training was superficial and unhelpful. I had a goal to make the experience for future Rho Gammas better than it had been for me, as did the rest of our recruitment team. Our goal as a team was to improve the process and make recruitment more values-based, which we did through improving logistics, better training of Rho Gammas, and more thorough PNM education. I truly believe that we laid the stepping stones for recruitment to be improved by leaps and bounds in years to come. Although our hard work was met with endless criticism by those who didn't understand why we felt it was important to change the system, it was worth it.
I think one of the most important things that being on the Recruitment Team gave me was Panhellenic sisterhood. As women, it's ingrained in our minds that we must compete with other women to be "better." Better looking, better dressed, better everything. This false belief certainly extends to being in a sorority, where competition with other chapters can be commonplace, and at times, encouraged. While I held this false belief for far too long, being a Recruitment Director pushed me out of my comfort zone and gave me the opportunity to work with women from other chapters, who not only became my acquaintances, but some of my best friends.
Those friends were there to help me when I went through one of the most difficult times of my life in December. A week before Christmas, I lost my grandpa. He was strong, resilient, loving, and one of the most incredible people in the world. Losing a second grandparent in less than a year was difficult (I lost my other grandpa in April of 2016). There is a profound pain when you lose a grandparent. Your heart truly aches whenever you think of them no longer being at family gatherings, saying your name, or never again getting to see their face light up when they see you walk in the door for a surprise visit. Though it's been five months, my heart still feels that pain in the same raw way I did right after it happened. You never really get over their loss, and the pain comes in waves for the rest of your life. While the waves are manageable now, they nearly capsized me in the beginning. I'm fortunate to have had incredible support within my friends to weather the storm. I wouldn't relive this time in my life for anything, but it definitely revealed my inner strength and resiliency.
One of the most interesting aspects of my senior year has been my exploration of fields other than the one I previously considered to be my ultimate goal. I entered college as a Health Sciences major in the Pre-Physical Therapy track, switching to Pre-Occupational Therapy my sophomore year. Though I spent about two semesters exploring the possibility of switching majors, I never found anything that I loved more than health sciences. Some might consider my exploration of other fields indecisive and silly, but I'm so glad that I gave myself a chance to explore. It has helped me feel much more confident in my career decisions and life choices!
As I prepare to graduate, I find myself looking back on the person that I was four years ago when I began my academic career at the University of Cincinnati. While I haven't become an entirely different person, I have grown and flourished into a much more dynamic person. When I was 17, the thought of talking to strangers, being involved in multiple organizations, and holding a leadership position that required leading 65+ women would have seemed too scary. Now here I am, with experience speaking in front of 600 people, multiple leadership positions under my belt, and with a plethora of extracurricular campus involvement. I have an unrelenting determination to be able to look back at my life and know that I lived it exactly the way I wanted to, and to know I wouldn't change anything that I've done. My failures and the adversity I've faced in the past four years have only helped make me a better person.
Being at UC alone has pushed me out of my comfort zone. Growing up in a small town allowed me to stay in my bubble for far too long, but being surrounded by my peers from numerous cultures and backgrounds helped pop that bubble. I've become far more open-minded than I was previously, and I've developed beliefs that I never would have pictured myself having before. My growth while in college has been exponential.
I cannot even begin to wrap my mind around the fact that in just a few short weeks I will be a University of Cincinnati alumna. As cliche as it is, it feels like just yesterday I was preparing to move into Turner Hall to begin my freshman year. I can't imagine what my life will be like without attending class everyday and the stress of homework and my commitments to extracurriculars, but I'm ready to move on to this next chapter of my life and make the most of it. I can't thank the University of Cincinnati enough for all that it has brought me. This university will always be one of my favorite places in the world, and I will carry all the lessons I've learned here with me for the rest of my life.