Interview Assignment

The life of a lost college student is an enlightening, yet scary journey to be on at the ripe age of nineteen. If I were to tell my 16-year-old self that in college I wouldn’t know what I want to do with my life, I would have an anxiety attack. Although, not knowing exactly what I want to do in the future has never felt so normal. There are so many doors and options for what I could do in the future that I am not worried at all. I don’t mean lost as a negative thing either, it is the best possible state that I could be in at the moment. It’s not that I don’t know who I am or what I want, but it means that I don’t have a set plan for the future and that I can refine the person I want to be even more.

All my life I have been the type of person that has always had a plan and would never go into something without knowing everything about the situation or all the information that pertains to the next step in my life. However, even though I don’t know what my life is going to be like in the future, everyone I interviewed about myself had the same ideas. I interviewed my mom, brother, and best friend to answer the interview questions. Although they are not the normal “mentors”, they motivate me and help me learn new things every day. Their energies and values make me want to be a better person for them and myself, which is really what a mentor means to me. I trust them and love them with all of my heart and they know me the best out of everyone, so I felt that they would be able to give the truest answers.

My future plan at the moment is to finish my sophomore year at Baylor and then moving up to Dallas to attend Baylor’s Nursing School to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree. Eventually I would like to back to school and earn my Masters and Doctorate degree for nursing in order to become a nurse practitioner. In between the time I become a nurse and going back to school, I would like to spread my knowledge and ability in less fortunate countries, so this could be through the military, missions, or other options. I have realized that in order to attain all of these goals, I will have to be motivated and extremely focused in the years to come. Of course, along with having big goals came the fear of not being smart enough or motivated enough and also not having enough time to do all of this. Interviewing my family members actually helped me feel less self-conscious and scared of my future dreams.

It is always interesting to learn what people think about you and also refreshing to know that people see things in you that you do not see in yourself. All of my mentors had generally the same response when asked about my strengths and talents. It was refreshing that all of my people said I was self-motivated and willing to make sacrifices in order to get everything done that has to be done. Some days I feel that this is true and others I do not, there are some days that I cannot get motivated to even get up off the floor. The fact that people close to me see the more motivated me than the unmotivated me is encouraging. My mentors also said that I am able to put a smile on everyone’s face and that I am a very positive person. I would say one of the things I try hardest at is trying to stay positive in difficult situations and I never want to do anything that would intentionally hurt another person, so I would strongly agree with this answer. I think attitude is everything and it can make or break a situation. Having a positive attitude is the most important characteristic of leadership to me. I have been on numerous cheerleading teams and every team has a few people that get angry and frustrated and give up, which is one of the worst qualities to have in my opinion. Motivating others helps me stay motivated and it works as a chain reaction.

Strength is a quality that I have learned and observed from my mom. My mother is one of the strongest people I know because of her ability to overcome every obstacle in life that is thrown at her. My mom, brother, and best friend all called me strong. This is one of the biggest complements I can receive, especially from people that have been through just as many life changing events as I have. I have been blessed enough to be completely surrounded by strong people my whole life. Everyone has strength inside of them, but it usually doesn’t come out of people until they are at a low point in their lives, which is kind of beautiful. Some people don’t even know how strong they are until they have to be, maybe because they have others relying on them or because they have to be string for themselves. As important as strength is, it may be more important to know your breaking point and being able to break down and open up to people you are close to. I learned this from years and years of bottling up my feeling and thoughts because I didn’t want to be vulnerable or make people around me worry about me, which is still something that I am getting better at.

Everyone can be a leader, they just have to be given the right group of people and a situation that needs a leader. Personally, I feel stronger as a leader when I am in a field or situation in which I know I am able to excel. I am able to lead by example in this way because I do not have to directly tell my peers what to do, but instead, present myself in a way that my peers will want to do what I am doing. My mentors also agreed that I lead by example and I am not the kind of person to tell people what to do, but instead ask them what they want to do and help them achieve that goal. I prefer to be motivational rather than like a dictator. I do not want all the power, I want to have just enough power to have my peers respect, but also be able to show them or lead them in the right direction. I believe that being honest as a leader is important and being able to admit when you’ve made a mistake so the people that look up to you can learn from your mistakes. It is reassuring to learn that I view myself as having the same leadership style as the people close to me view me as having.

It is not every day that you have to learn new things about yourself from others around you, but it is a humbling exercise. Through asking my brother, mom, and best friend I was able to make my future direction more solid in my mind because they viewed my future as the same way I did. I was able to find out how strong and positive I portray myself to the world around me and that my leadership style is universally agreed upon and that is the kind of leader I hope to be in the future. Leading by example is not always the most obvious form of leadership, but it is a good one to promote self-confidence and the idea of a team among peers rather than a leader and her followers.