Just about two months ago, I was getting off of an airplane from San Francisco. It was just days after my 20^th birthday and I had ventured out to the West coast on my own for a few days. On that flight back home, I realized something very important: it was time to turn my life around.

To be honest, I was happy at the time. On my birthday I was so excited to enter into this next decade of my life. Despite challenges, I was very optimistic for the short and long-term; there was just something that was bothering me. I couldn’t figure it out for a long time. It took a lot of thought and thousands of miles of traveling for me to figure out that it was time for me to step out of my comfort zone and do the work needed for the unfinished jobs in my life.

Those unfinished jobs for me were job promotion/internship, stepping up my role in student government, and getting my real estate license. I realized that I had laid out all of these wonderful paths and I just wasn’t following through on some of them. I was hearing “no” from every internship I applied to, I longed for more responsibility within Miami’s student government, and I had left thousands of dollars on the table by not successfully getting my real estate license. I realized that if I didn’t step up soon, my will to succeed in these ventures would just become a dream instead of a reality. With that in mind, I changed my mentality.

It was my dream to intern for Marriott at their headquarters this summer. I had worked at a full-service Marriott for a year and thought that if I could intern at corporate, I could take it to the next level and pave the way for a job out of college. I found out in early April that my dream internship didn’t need my assistance this summer. Other companies gave me similar news as I slowly began to realize that for the second summer in a row, I would be without an internship and without a clear path forward. For a moment, I thought my career with Marriott might be going nowhere, but just a couple weeks after my 20^th birthday, something changed.

I met with my general manager and spoke with him about my options going forward. He assured me that he would be glad to help me in any way possible—that meant a lot to me. The conversation eventually led to me being given the opportunity to get some management experience, which is rare in any industry having only one year of experience and being only 20 years old. To me it was a promotion, an offer that could potentially take my career with Marriott to the next level; for now, my summer had been saved.

The other path that I was trying to push forward was student government. I had been involved with student government at Miami for about a year. I wanted to take my role in student government to the next level. There was an opportunity for me to step up into a new position and take on more leadership opportunities. It required me to interview against some very bright and intelligent students who were not only older than me, but very intelligent. I had by far the lowest GPA out of all of the other candidates, but after interviewing well, I was able to get the position. This position will allow me have a much greater role and take on much more responsibility. I accomplished this by simply going for it and believing in my self and my abilities. I put in my application for the position about an hour before the deadline; I’m glad I made the decision to apply as I could have missed a major opportunity.

Lastly (and most recently), I went for and got my real estate license. I have long had an interest in real estate, and in November of last year, I applied for the classes that are needed to take the exam. I had dedicated my entire winter break to taking 120 hours of real estate courses and just last week, I was able to take my exam and pass it. I take great pleasure in being able to say that I am a real estate agent at 20 years old.

In the past two years, I have heard a lot of “no’s.” Miami University told me no, the Student Senate at Miami told me no, and dozens of companies both big and small have told me no. To get three yes’s in a short span of time has really increased my confidence, and now allows me to raise my (already high) expectations.

The last two years haven’t been perfect, but the work I put in has given me the opportunity to turn my luck and my life around in two short months.

This is only the beginning; there is so much more to come.