Who Am I?
My name is Nicole Miller. I am a first year at Penn State University majoring in mathematics education. After graduation, I intend to pursue a teaching career for the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) school district. I eagerly await the day I can finally share my knowledge with other students.
Why Penn State?
When I was searching for a college, it proved to be quite challenging because I lived overseas and had never been exposed to schools in America. I wanted a school that would help ease my transition into the US. I wanted to pick a school that would best prepare me for life outside of college. I wanted a school that would appreciate my love for learning. I wanted a school that would help me make my dreams a reality. Naturally, Penn State was that school. And now, I am honored to be able to call it home for the next four years.
Everyone knows that at some point in your life, you are going to experience change.
Me? Well I grew up in a military family. And when one spends the entirety of their childhood with a parent in the military, they are quick to grasp that their existence revolves around their parent's job. At a young age, the individual must learn to adapt to an ambiguous lifestyle full of countless deployments and moves.
After the third or fourth move, you begin to understand what its like to drop everything and start over anew. You are forced to have long-distance relationships with all of your friends. You will meet different kinds of people and learn how to interact with them. You familiarize yourself new places and countries; your home will never be one place. You are somewhat forced to feel as if you should constantly invite change in your life, even if you don't want it.
So for me, change is all I experience.
CHANGE IS GOOD.
My childhood has taught me that while change is inevitable, you always have the choice to create change yourself. Just because everything else is changing around you, it doesn't mean that you need to too. You don't need someone or something to coerce you to change.
If you want to do something, you can.
If I want to do something, I can.
You can do anything; right here and right now.
I can do anything; and I will.
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.
After all of these years of believing that I needed to change after every move, I realized that I don't need to change for anyone else except me.
And I can be anyone I want to be.
I want to be the person who believes in their ability to succeed. I want to be the kind of person who makes a lasting positive impression on everyone I pass by. I want to be the person who has a strong and healthy self-relationship. I want to be the person who helps others realize that they can thrive by just bring themselves. I want to travel the world and help others.
I believe that change is good.
YOUR STORY.
Your background is your story. All of your previous actions- whether you were five years old or thirty-seven years old- characterize you. The rules your parents made for you at a young age has governed your thought process now. The ethical behaviors you were exposed to as a child will act as a mediator for your relationships and religious beliefs. The environment you were raised in has substantially effected how you interact with other people. Your past has created you; but if you don't like where you are in life right now, that doesn't mean you still don't have the opportunity to reshape your story. It just all depends on how you choose to live your life from here on out.
BUT WHAT IF I FAIL?
Failure. It's a terrifying word if you think about it. It means a lack of success, a deficient in skills, being incompetent. No one likes to fail, but what if failure helped? What if experiencing the bad pushed you to try the good? Personally, I always find myself worrying about failure. How am I supposed to be the best version of myself of like keeps throwing obstacles in my way? How am I supposed to 'change for the better' if there's a possibility that I could 'change for the worse?'
The key is to fight life's questions. You have to think optimistically, and to do that, you have to learn to question your own questions. You cannot expect things to happen without contributing. You have to do things to get things. Commitment isn't pretty. It is one big fight to the finish line, but in the end it is worth it. Commitment means that then things get tough, you have to learn to just keep going forward. So, instead of sitting back and worrying about failure, take a step back and move forward.
It means believing in yourself! Which is my ultimate goal- to believe in myself and my ability to prosper in life.
I CAN & I WILL.
We all have the opportunity to shape who we are and decide who we want to become. So why do anything besides try to be the best version of yourself?
Those dreams I have? I can reach them.
That life I want to live? I can live that.
That person I have to be? I can be them.
I just have to be optimistic.
Credits:
Created with images by Alisa Anton - "untitled image" • Tianshu Liu - "Gate to the domain of God" • Brennan Burling - "untitled image" • Dawid Zawiła - "untitled image" • Pexels - "notebook notes pen" • Andreas Weiland - "Balloons on a string" • avi_acl - "morning positive sky beautifull blue orange lifestyle" • Pexels - "woman umbrella floating jumping yellow background artistic" • Nathan Shipps - "untitled image"