On the last second to last Sunday of August, I packed away the last box of my possessions. Everything I held dear to in the world was packed into the trunk of my mom’s car in cigarette boxes from my sister’s work. It somehow felt wrong that 18 years’ worth of memories and collections and life were so easy to gather up and ship off. Yet this transition somehow felt oddly fitting. It’s comforting to know that picking up and starting over can be so easy. A new life, a new chance at becoming exactly who you want to be. And that’s what august 22nd was for me- a fresh start. It was exhilarating. Leadership safari was by far the most positive opportunity for self-growth and reflection that I had participated in this year. The six day event taught
…show more content…
I have goals and I know exactly what I want to do with my life and generally who I want to be and how I want to influence others. I used high school as a period of exploration to find out that I wanted to be an English teacher. I developed a sense of self-worth and acceptance leaving my senior year, and going into leadership safari solidified those feelings for me. One activity I particularly thought was powerful was in my animal group, team crow. At the end of a long day, our first day, we all sat down in a circle and were given a sheet of paper and told to write down all of the things we would have been stereotyped as or were made fun of for in high school. Our pencils scratched the papers for several minutes as some peoples’ lists grew sadly long. As we finished, my team leader, Erisa, told us to take our lists and shred them as she told us about what to expect in college. She told us that what we have is valuable, a fresh start where no one knows who we are. There are over 20,000 people on campus that don’t know our names, they don’t know a single thing about us. 20,000 potential connections. We should use that to our advantage and wipe away what we knew about who we are from high school because we now have the potential to be anyone we want to be here at CMU. This lesson still amazes me every day and I work to always make those
I have goals and I know exactly what I want to do with my life and generally who I want to be and how I want to influence others. I used high school as a period of exploration to find out that I wanted to be an English teacher. I developed a sense of self-worth and acceptance leaving my senior year, and going into leadership safari solidified those feelings for me. One activity I particularly thought was powerful was in my animal group, team crow. At the end of a long day, our first day, we all sat down in a circle and were given a sheet of paper and told to write down all of the things we would have been stereotyped as or were made fun of for in high school. Our pencils scratched the papers for several minutes as some peoples’ lists grew sadly long. As we finished, my team leader, Erisa, told us to take our lists and shred them as she told us about what to expect in college. She told us that what we have is valuable, a fresh start where no one knows who we are. There are over 20,000 people on campus that don’t know our names, they don’t know a single thing about us. 20,000 potential connections. We should use that to our advantage and wipe away what we knew about who we are from high school because we now have the potential to be anyone we want to be here at CMU. This lesson still amazes me every day and I work to always make those