Mapping it Out

By: Kiley Irizarry

As I have gotten more involved with my CBI and my Summer Experience, even though it was not the experience I originally chose or expected, I have had some positive personal developments that I think are useful to share.

Recently, I have been taking advantage of the fact that I am in Tallahassee by developing a gym habit. It has been very grounding surprisingly, and it helps me destress after I complete my internship and other things for the day such as LSAT prep. It has led to a more positive attitude from me and I am proud of it. Furthermore, I feel more confident when I go out into the world which has been useful for my work. I try to go every three days but sometimes that does not work out as planned, and I am practicing being okay with that.

On the topic of practicing being okay with things not going as planned, I have done a lot of that with my current summer experience. There have been many times where I am not given as much to do as I hope, or times to meet with people get changed quite frequently and it used to cause me stress, but I am practicing being okay with those things by just finding something productive to do relating to my Capstone to replace the time. That way, I am still working and feeling like I am getting the most out of my Global Scholars summer.

Unrelated to my personal developments this summer, behaviors and values that I have exercised that contribute positively to my inner circle is my personal value that anyone can achieve greatness. This leads me to be very encouraging to my inner circle, mainly my friends and my family. I really do believe that any person can be the best version of themself, but it is a very hard journey to be that version, so it has influenced me to become overly encouraging when I see someone try to reach that level.

For my community, I have developed the habit of donating my time whenever possible. Being in Tallahassee and working with the teachers union has influenced me to become very involved in the community past being a student. Outside of my internship, I have been volunteering in other causes in the Tallahassee area that I care about and donating my time whenever possible. It has become a better practice of mine and has actually helped shake my homesickness because it makes Tallahassee feel like my hometown again.

As for practices that positively impact the world, this is a hard thing to reflect on because I am just a little fish in such a huge world. However, I believe that working with the community has helped me make an impact on the world because volunteering your time in one persons life can lead to their situation being alleviated, and that positively effects the people around them. Then it creates this domino effect of each person positively effecting like 5 people around them and it grows exponentially. I don’t think that one person can impact the whole world, but I believe doing work as one person can impact many inner worlds, and that is quite nice to think about.