THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, JUST LESSONS

I really enjoyed the article 18 Truths to Start Telling Your. The article reiterated the fact that I have improved on so much this year, but I still need to work on a lot. My experience at Loyola so far has raised my self awareness, and has built my confidence, so reading this article I found myself really engaged. One thing that stuck to me is the line, "follow your heart regardless of what others tell you to do. At the end of the day it's you who has to live with your decisions, not them." All my life I have been the person that seeks out everyone's approval, or I need someone to tell me what to do or reenforce that what I am doing is okay. This is something I am working on because I have realized that in the end of the day I have my own ideas and dreams, and I need to value them as equally important. Something else that resonated with me was the line, "there are no mistakes, only lessons." I loved this line because I never really looked at life from this perspective, and it is true all the things I think are "mistakes" have only allowed me to learn and grow from them.

 

 Looking at this list I realized that I have always been the person who loves the simple things. I do not have to go to an amusement park or to a fancy restaurant, I can just chill with my friends and do dorky things like baking, drawing with chalk, playing Nintendo 64, walking, or even just talking. As long as I am with my friends and family I know I will always have a good time. Some of my other strengths include that I am honest, kind, respectful, and I see the good in everyone. I am a big quote person, so every time I think about seeing the good in everyone I think about it, "everyone is your friend, until they prove otherwise." Although I have my strengths I also have my weaknesses. For example, I tend to be the individual that wants to hang out with everyone and be everyone's friend that I sometimes under appreciate the true friends that I have. I feel bad when I do that, and it is something I am working on because in the end of the day it is your close friends that will be there for you no matter what. Something I use to be bad at was not doing things because I am scared of the outcome. I have not to find faults in why I should not do certain things, I should just do them because often times they lead to splendid surprises.

The article 15 ways to Live, and Not Merely Exist was another joyful article to read. What stood out the most to me was number one. Everyone does not realize what they are missing out until it is gone. I have realized this the past four months when my mom and my little brother had to go to Mexico for a serious reason. The fact that I could not call my mom every day or the fact that when I came home I could not see them tore me apart. I missed her cooking, her kindness, and her presence. I felt bad because I did not have it as bad as my dad and siblings because they had to be in the house with out her, and for me it was a little easier since I was keeping busy at college. But things like this make you appreciate the people in your life. Something that I disagreed with in the article was the part were it talked about how you need to forgive those that hurt you. I agree with it in the sense that you should forgive people for stuff that they do to you, but there are certain cases were individuals hurt you to the point were it is hard to forgive.

 Something that I need to work on from reading the articles is being able to embrace change and enjoy the unfolding of life. This is a problem that I had to deal with last semester, and it is still something I am having trouble managing. Right now I do not know exactly what I want to do with my life, and the uncertainty of that makes me anxious. I just have to learn to let go, and follow my passions and work hard knowing that I will end up in a good place.  Something else that I am working on is loving myself. My whole life I have had very low self-esteem, but this year I am learning to build that. I have gone through something in my life that have made it hard for me to be happy with myself and confident, but it is a working progress and I know I will get to were I need to be eventually.

Our video is going along well. At first it seemed like we were not going to get anything done, but thanks to certain individuals who took charge we have a solid video. STARS has defiantly effected my leadership because through STARS I was exposed to new experiences and knowledge on topics of social justice and identity that I did not know about before. Especially being in the STARS LEAD I was able to finally consider myself a leader. I always knew I wanted to be a leader, but I never realized that I was a leader. I have been doing things that leaders do, I just did not think I was a leader because I did not fit the typical stereotype. Going into STARS LEAD I did not know what to expect, but reflecting on my experience I have gained so much more than I thought I was going to, and I am thankful I got the opportunity to be part of such a wonderful program. One thing that I would love to see in the future for STARS LEAD is that from the beginning there is a initial effort to get to know everyone else in the program. I think that it is something that we lacked in doing this year. Some of us already knew each other so we stuck with each other, and we did not make the effort to get to know everyone else. Or people got to know each other later in the semester, but having that initial bond and connection would have been awesome.

I love this song, and felt like sharing it with everyone, enjoy! :)