I came into my Freshmen year at SIUE not fully understanding what being in college would be like. Not understanding that I would be alone and that it wouldn’t be like the movies. Now I am finishing my Freshmen strong, with the understanding that I may have been alone but if I put myself out there people will come.
My first year at SIUE did have a lot of challenges. From health issues to mental health issues. Below are some of the ways that I have grown and will continue to grow.
I went to Alton on a Codes project day trip and got to interview an amazing woman Stephaine Schrage. The picture above is after our interview with Daphne ( another code student/friend), and I went to a movie theater that Ms.Schrage had recommended. Doing this did take me out of my comfort zone. I didn’t have a friend to do this with 1st semester, it showed me that if I let myself be open to others then people will want to walk into my life.
This is a photo of me playing in the Esports room and Bluff Hall. I had a lot of built-up social anxiety, and a lot of anger toward myself. Back home I used to play video games. When I did meet new friends they recommended that I go down to the Esports room and try playing OverWatch and that changed my whole spring semester I was in there almost all the time. Had a really bad social anxiety and OverWatch did help me get my anger out when something.
This photo is of me while I watched the sunrise in St Louis. At the beginning of my freshman year, I went through a tough breakup and was holding a lot of emotion in and I let it all out by binge eating. and so I did gain a lot of weight but when this video was taken I was going to the gym constantly I felt better about how I saw myself in the mirror and realized that no one can control my feelings, that everything that hurts me will only make me stronger. I had to stop letting things bother me by this point and I just saw happiness in my friends and I was like I want that I don’t want to have to think negatively about myself. and in the picture the sweatshirt says it says “love yourself always” I thought that was important for me because I had to learn to love myself.
This last picture of me is a picture of me with my research team and my cohort and Ngrrec this was a picture that we were using for a presentation but I liked it. In the future, my journey will be prosperous. The plans that we have with my cohort give me a lot of comfort as to how my future will go.
Knowing how I could grow and how I can continue to grow taught me a lot this semester. I know that I need to work on my mental health and physical health to continue to do things that I wanted to do in my life and I can’t wait to see what I’m going to do and to share it with you!!
