This one is for me

If you know me, you know that I love recognition and the opportunity to make others feel good about themselves. This is a quality I admire about myself, however, I don’t seem to be that good when it comes to me. As a person who often deals with self doubt and continuous issues of understanding my self worth, I had decided to take this time to remind myself of all the successes and accomplishments made this year. Mind you it will be written in first person because while I love the support of others and thank you if you continue reading on this is something I need to hear. That’s right Instagram, Facebook or even Linkedin are unaware of many of these things I will share, but that’s not the important part. It’s me. This one is for me.

You’ve had an amazing year of growth and accomplishment and you need to recognize that. You became a junior in college! Truly not everyone gets the chance to do that, it’s A privilege and one that you did not take lightly.

You carried through the year strong academically, challenging yourself and striving to learn more about the world around you. Your dedication in class, that in truth you struggled with, lead to your ability to work on a special study research project for the SDSU-MV campus. That’s a big deal. The research you did will be used by the university in order to best determine what type of housing they will choose for the campus. You were a part of a bigger picture. Something that an affect generations of students to come at the new campus.

You also made a connection with a brilliant professor who really believed in you. She encouraged you and really strived to mentor you and broaden your awareness of opportunities and possibilities. It’s worthwhile spending extra time out of your day to get to know a professional in your potential feed. She leaves me hopeful that I can have a future in government work. You must be thankful and keep her a part of your life.

You also held your first internship, or technically fellowship, at the Women’s Resource Center. It was there that for the first time you were able to hold a program on body positivity an issue near and dear to your heart. Something you continue to struggle with, but the program allowed you to see it in a new light and see it through others perspectives as well. You also formed a community with other powerful women, which was awesome, obviously. It was here you really and truly became a full fledge feminist and an activist.

You also had another internship with the Dean of Students. You got the chance to work on proposals, one that passed and one that failed and to see the interworking of a university. You are proud to say that one of the initiatives will be occurring next year thanks to your successful proposal and the mentor ship of Dr. Randy Timm. You also helped with a campus wide program known as the “Midnight Study Break” making many logistic items and serving as a student voice. You made a flyer that was used all across campus. Remember those fond days pointing to the large digital screen in the union telling your friends “I did this!” They were proud and you should be too. Additionally you worked to further the DAC program while supporting student feedback and serving as a liaison between the participants and the creators. From your past experience you were able to provide input to create more unique ideas to expand the program. Your work became interconnected and more meaningful that ever. You continue to make a difference.

All the while you worked a new job as a student assistant in the Residential Education Office. Working 9 hours a week and waking up earlier that you ever planned for the semester considering your classes didn’t start until 12:30. You made good relationships in the office and will continue the role. While many days might have gone with smaller tasks like removing stickers off folders and packaging study packs, you found ways to make your presence in the office worthwhile by find tasks that needed to be done and completing as needed.

In addition of course you were still a Resident Advisor serving you students and being constant with extra effort and attention to them. Though the relationships might not have been as natural as the previous year, you did not give up and you stuck it out and gave it your best effort. You became a role model for bulletin boards in the building and continued to impress people with your programs, including winning program of the year for an educational program called Mirrorless Monday. This was dedicated to my many residents who set goals at the beginning of the year to lose weight and were also dancers, so there was a constant pressure for them to look a certain way. This day the mirrors were covered and filled with positive quotes and reaffirmation that each and every resident in the building is beautiful. That was your win and you deserved it.

The fun didn’t stop there on top of this you were a producer for the Vagina Monologues an event that brought in more than $5,000 to donate to charity. You were Vice President of the National Residence Hall Honorary spearheading the first ever Residents Appreciation Week and planning a multitude of service events, your hard work proved you capable as serving as the President of the organization the coming year. You were accepted to attend a public service weekend to learn more about public policy work, you were one of the founding members of Ignite SDSU an organization that empowers Women to run for political office, where you sent a series of inspiring emails to members challenging them each week and informing them of upcoming events through memes. You started a blog, you went to early morning gym classes (when you could wake up at least), you starred in a show as an Abuelita, telling an important typically unheard story and did 1 barely pistol squat. AND on top of all of this you took a courageous trip to Kenya in order to gain awareness about the world and inspire other girls through education. A journey that is still developing.

It feels different when you write it all down. I found myself discovering even more things that never originally came to mind and honestly there’s probably some other things that occurred that just didn’t come to mind when writing this. Thank you to anyone who decided to continue reading along. I think it’s hard, or at least how I see it, telling these things make me feel like I’m bragging in some way, which results to my hardly addressing any successes from the year, but honestly this made me feel good about myself. That even with a variety of things occurring in my life I was able to achieve all of this.

If you’re still here, I challenge you to do the same. I challenge you to spend some time to reflect on how god dang awesome you are. Write even the small things down, because a success is a success no matter how small. Find a way to love yourself. I promise, even in the dark you’re shining, you are a star and never forget it.