I had an amazing opportunity to be a part of a Tweet chat for Easter Seals, you might remember Easter Seals from my incredible internship with them last summer! #ThriveCollege sponsored by Easter Seals Thrive aims to spread awareness of disability in colleges, the resources your colleges can provide and such. You can find out more information on what Thrive does for our community at the link here.
First, I wanted to clarify a couple of things from my previous blog post (if you missed it here it is). It got shared so many times, I think the major message got a bit lost. It was purely to inform, not to complain of my experiences--I would never replace my journey for someone else's. The blog post was not written to complain but to enhance the problems we as a community encounter. I realize most college graduates struggle finding a job too, but our window of opportunities are even more narrower with our "disability".
I used my retail interview experience as an example, I am currently searching for a corporate/firm entry level job with Public Relations or Social Media--but while I'm searching for that perfect job, I'm applying to a couple of retail jobs to keep my bills paid! If you have any questions for me or about the community, please don't hesitate to reach out to me on social media; the links to my pages are on the top of my blog (the neon green heart).
If you shared, commented or messaged me about the post, thank you for being involved and supporting your community by creating some amazing dialogue. I know a lot of people's eyes were opened through reading my post and your comments! All I ask for is to keep this dialogue going until changes happens!
Moving on to the #ThriveCollege chat. You can read all about the chat here, thanks to Storify!
Why did I get involved?
I'm always eager to jump in a live Twitter chat because people want to listen to your opinion, experience and stories. It's a great way to interact with people you don't usually interact with on Twitter. Also, I love seeing other people's answers to questions being asked. People truly come from various backgrounds, but sometimes they have similar experience with you--you're able to connect with them.
There's something about live tweeting that gets my adrenaline up and running, (you can see how much I love social media here) and makes the whole experience tremendously exciting. Maybe it's the fast paced tweeting back and forth, or being able to answer sometimes taboo questions for people.
For this particular situation, I got involved because it strikes close to my heart. I'm a woman who went to college, and I happen to be Deaf. See how I placed my Deafness as my least important fact? Because as an educated woman I'm able to lead an example that Deaf people can go to college and they don't let their "disability" bring them down. People often don't realize how much resources colleges/universities have for people with disabilities of all sorts. Education about people with disabilities start very small, but with live chats, we're able to reach out more to people.
With this chat I can only hope to sustain the conversation about the stigma around people with disabilities and their futures.
How do you think we did? What are your suggestions for any future live chats ie. questions being asked, answers and such?
March was about me exercising when I can, not for weight loss but for body, mind and soul health. I got caught up in schoolwork and projects that I completely did not have time to work out (well, maybe, if I traded off House of Cards for working out, I would have had time). I completed a very small step, though. I got some dumbbells and a foam rolling pin for all my soreness. I started with a couple of reps, but left the dumbbells and the foam rolling pin behind for the last week or so while I worked on homework, class projects and finishing the Deaf Women Awareness Week events. But hey, March isn't over just yet!
The whole time since my last post I was thinking of why positivity was so hard to come to by for me. Few nights ago, I finally had that light-bulb AHA moment. I've endured so many negative things in my 22 years, that I could not think of anything as normal as negativity in my life. Sad, I know. I've been surrounded by friends who radiated negativity hardcore. I've been surrounded by the media teaching us negativity about our body, about how we should act and how we should be as women. And I'm very sure I wasn't the only one surrounded by negativity.
Over the past few weeks, I have been working with several young women for a Deaf Women Awareness Week which is a week-long events of leadership, confidence and other things with women. This week-long event is now completed, but throughout all the planning--I realized how much of an impact I had on those younger women and how much more I could make an impact on other young women if I really explained what I went through. I was mainly responsible for facilitating two nights of events, one with TED talks (that eventually got cancelled along with the RIT campus closing because of the Vuclan snowstorm) and one with successful Deaf women panel. It was successful, not only reaching out to young women but to some young men too. We grabbed the chance to explain how young men could be allies to women by calling out what's not right such as joking about rape, etc. The panel was truly inspiring because I could listen to these women's stories about oppression and how they got to where they are today. It sure did help with my positivity challenge. If you'd like to share your experiences, I would love to listen and swap stories!
I know I will need to exercise after I get back from Texas for my spring break trip...so much food options. Can't wait! This will be a lengthy resolution as seeing I can't seem to motivate myself to exercise, I'd much rather take a nap than pick up my measly 3lb dumbbells. Now that I put it that way...that sounds dumb. :)
April's resolutions (although some might be during the last few weeks of this month, obviously) will be to travel, even if it’s to another city or to another state (Austin and hopefully national parks around Rochester) and to apply to a job that you're probably under qualified for. As seeing as I need a summer co-op, I'm starting to apply to various job opportunities, even if my resume is not oozing with experience yet--I even applied to Twitter, what a dream job that would be!
To recap my last three months, my resolutions have been:
- January: Bite my nails a whole lot less, take care of them as well as I can and treat myself to a nice manicure when this is achieved.
- February: Strive to be a better person than who I was yesterday.
- February: Be more of a positive person, some of that energy is bound to reach people around you.
- March: Exercise when I can, not for weight loss but for body, mind and soul health.
And I'm off to finish up some more homework and projects before I leave for Texas on Thursday. If I start packing now, will I get to leave Rochester a little earlier? I didn't think so either. :(
For it's a year of brand new experiences and different way of living, at least for me. I'm entering my second to last semester of college, my boyfriend and I are now in a long-distance relationship, and some of my friends have graduated...
I know it sounds minimal, but I really feel like my life has already adjusted from the routine I've known last semester. From the moment I entered my house Sunday, I felt the loss of my roommate and my boyfriend. As I drove to Walmart and Wegman's, I thought back on all the hilarious conversations the boyfriend and I would have on the way there and back to our places. When I'm in the mood, I want to see specific friends--but they're not in Rochester anymore. Some of my friends are starting jobs, families and the rest of their lives; something I can't relate to. There's just something missing from my routine now, and I'm looking for something to fill it. Maybe a new passion, activity or hobby will strike.
In the past few months, when reminded that some of my friends were graduating at the end of fall semester, I laughed it off in hopes of not having the experience impact me this much. But little did I know, by not accepting the truth in the first place, I was setting myself up for a bigger impact. Now this impact is a domino effect to the fact that more friends are graduating at the end of spring semester. All I can hope is that we all stay in touch as often as we can...(because you guys are my friends for life, duh.)
But I'm not the one to back down a challenge, or a changed routine. I'm ready for this change, and I'm ready to see what Rochester has for me and only me. I can't wait to kindle the fire of my independence, stepping out of my comfort zone and to embrace the fleeting moment of having time for myself. I'm ready to step up and take reins of where I'm supposed to go. I feel older, mature, and eager to start things on my own. Of course, it will scare me, sadden me, and maybe make me feel lonely--but I'm ready. By being able to be more flexible with my routine and habits, I will be more flexible with what life throws me--and God knows, there are plenty of obstacles I have to hurdle in the near future.
In order for my personal growth to expand a little more throughout this year, I have decided to do a personal resolution thing. I would like to start at least one per month, and then write about it... Hopefully I will have finished more than 12 resolutions by the end of the year and stick with them for the rest of my life! Naturally, some resolutions will take longer than a month, but I want to introduce a new one monthly and keep on at it.
January will be all about biting my nails a whole lot less, take
care of them as well as I can and treat myself to a nice manicure when this is
achieved. (I have actually been trying to do this for the most of January, so this is perfect to start off with.)
Here's to me and commitment. <3
