Hello everyone! I hope everyone's semester has been going great! In this blog post I will be talking about who I am grateful for who has helped me get to where I am today and what advice I would give to my younger self. The first few people that have popped into my head when thinking about answering this question is my mom and sisters. I remember a couple of years ago, I was struggling with my mental health and financial situation. It was my first year as a college student and did not know whether I would be prepared or able to afford to pay for school. As my sister was a previous ASU alumni, she had walked me through different resources and options to applying for FAFSA and applying towards different scholarship programs offered through the institute I was attending which was Phoenix College at the time. By doing that I got into the STEM/TRAIN mentorship program which now has brought me to being at ASU today! Knowing all the wonderful mentors and colleagues I have grown with over the years! I am super grateful my family had pushed me through especially during hard times.
Advice that I would give my younger self would be not to feel discouraged or avoid feeling like I am not smart/good enough for a career path I am wanting to go in. Thinking back, I had to constantly doubted myself into going into that career path simply because I let fear interfere with me pursuing anything I wanted. I've learned over the years that it is great to accept the feeling rather than avoiding and dissecting down why I feel that certain way to identify it and move forward. I believe many student's can feel this way as we all face different situations that can cause high stress and emotions. My advice would be instead of avoiding those feelings, sit with and reflect, accept and move forward. :)
