Mapping Impact

By: Valerie Contreras

Over the past semesters in college, I have gradually begun employing habits, routines, practices, and behaviors that have positively contributed to myself, my inner circle, my community, and the world.

These practices stemmed from a time when I couldn’t help but view the world through a pessimistic lens. With so many negative things going on in the world, I felt discouraged and hopeless. Everything shifted when I began to become involved in community work. This journey began in high school with my participation as a community canvasser and committee co-chair for a local social justice organization in Miami. Throughout my roles in this organization, I developed skills that helped me improve my mental health and aided my discovery of self within my community. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I belonged. Conversations between and within the community were facilitated through town halls and community BBQs/Cookouts. We would eat, dance, and talk–a lot. We’d talk about our generation’s traumas that we carried throughout our lives as a result of systemic challenges. We motivated one another to act on these emotions and enact change for the community and ourselves. This experience gave me hope; hope that my experiences can serve as building blocks that stimulate meaningful change.

From then on, I began to actively and consciously focus on the small and big victories in my daily life. Victories ranged from passing mid-term exams to eating Cold Stone’s delicious chocolate devotion ice cream! Journaling these activities and milestones helped me remain positive and active in my community and inner circle. This encouraged me to remain positive. The thing about positivity is that it’s infectious! Your smile can brighten someone else’s day, which in turn may lead them to also impact other people. Showing up for myself by remaining positive and hopeful influenced the way others showed up for me. This is what community engagement was able to do for me—it healed me.

Throughout my summer experience, I would like to work on my resilience. This summer, I am interning at a law firm, which is completely out of my comfort zone. I have no previous experience studying law or being a firsthand witness to litigation. While I am excited about the opportunity I have been given, I realize that I must learn to push through hurdles such as a lack of knowledge about the legal field and learning professional etiquette at a law firm’s office. If there is anything my past experiences have taught me, it is that I can prevail if I remain confident, determined, and most importantly, positive!