It's not easy maintaining a growth mindset! A growth mindset can be compared to a muscle, you have to exercise it every day. I keep a growth mindset through reflection by journaling. As I'm pursuing my Master's of Social Work, I go through my classes with the mindset that I am not an expert and there is so much to learn. I take time after every class to journal about what I've learned and how I can apply it in my every day to help make me a stronger social worker when I start to practice. In order to have a consistent growth mindset, you have to have a sense of humbleness and humility. I accept that I am learning new things each and every day, even outside of my master's program. I do not know everything and I am not going to be great at everything on my first try. When I first started playing the ukelele I had to humble myself, even though I am naturally musically oriented, I still had a huge learning curve. I had to tell myself I wasn't there yet, and that I was learning something new so of course, it's going to take time. I also constantly have to take the pressure off of myself to be perfect. Perfectionism blocks a growth mindset. When we focus on being perfect from the beginning, we fail to see the beauty in growth. We forget to enjoy the process of learning and crafting a new skill. There's beauty along the journey, there's beauty in a growth mindset.

I've always admired people who have outstanding patience. As a society, we place an emphasis on qualities like hard work and determination, often forgetting the roots of a peaceful life. Patience is at the root of everything including success and happiness. The times I've been the most patient have been the times I've been the least stressed and things have worked out for the best. I do believe patience is attached to faith. The more you believe everything works out for a reason, the more patience you have navigating through life and all of its obstacles. They say time heals everything, and that's exactly what patience is, giving things time. If I didn't display patience or give things time, I'm not sure I would be here. There was a time where I didn't think my life would get better, where I saw no hope. I remember thinking that the only way for my life to get better was not exist on this earth anymore. Looking back now I see the importance of patience. I see why it was so valuable to me because patience saved my life. Patience gave me the strength to keep going, it was the light in a sea of darkness. Hearing "it gets better" at 16 seemed like an impossible possibility. It wasn't until I exercised patience, took it one day at a time, and had hope that life would truly get better. Patience taught me to grow into who I am today. To spend more time living in this moment appreciating this life than worrying about the next moment or what isn't going exactly my way. Patience taught me to believe that everything works out in the end.

"I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples." - Mother Teresa I would share this one to inspire others to be a light in the world and to understand that the burden to change the world doesn't depend on just me or you, we are just an individual after all. There is power in community and teamwork. We may feel overwhelmed by what's going wrong in society and in our world today, but if we look at some of history's greatest leaders we see that they didn't make a difference in this world solely by themselves. MLK had inspired others with his words and light to fight for justice and inequality, he created a whole movement that led to equal rights for all. This quote puts the power back in our hands. We are able to cast stones each and every day, simply by smiling at someone or helping others out, giving kindness means to spread kindness, in turn, creating the ripples. Simple acts of volunteering, having important conversations about the condition of the world with others, or just asking someone how they're doing are the stones we can all cast to make those ripples. We do not all have to be the next MLK in order to make a difference, but if we are all aware of how difficult it is to be human in this world and decide to take action in our own little ways, we can be the light in a world that seems a little dim right now. It starts with me and you, each of us choosing to be a catalyst for change, choosing to unite and become a force so powerful, that we turned into the ocean. We're not ripples anymore.