With the second month of quarantine now fully complete, I have been doing a lot of self-reflection on who I am, and who I want to be. I dearly miss my residents, my Residence Life team, my LEx team and NRHH family, but I am also extremely thankful for this time that I am getting to spend getting to know myself. As I am a very go-go-go person, I don't normally give myself a lot of time to sit down and check in with myself without any other distractions. Right before the quarantine hit, I was having a lot of anxiety with feeling like I wasn't doing enough, but at the same time doing so much that I was losing myself in the process. As a second semester sophomore, I was lining myself up for opportunities to fill my junior year with, but I was not really focused on me "why." I was getting a lot of anxiety over the idea of not being enough for graduate school, like I was faking my way through and was just going through the motions of my life, not really living and immersing myself in it.

In a way, it took a pandemic to allow me the space and "time" to check-in with myself. I know my "why" now more than ever, and a lot of that has been defined by the parts of my life that I dearly miss right now. Post quarantine, I am making a promise to myself (a written one, due to this post) that I will take even five minutes out of each day to check-in with myself, journal my mood, or just lay down on my bed with no music, no phone, no distractions. I have so many dreams and aspirations, but they all mean nothing if I do not just slow down and breathe, and truly enjoy the strong, empowered woman I am becoming.

Please slow down and enjoy life, it truly is beautiful.