gratitude

Last week was officially the last week of my cohort at Hackbright and for the last two weeks I have found myself in an interesting space emotionally.Prior to Hackbright, I worked at a non-profit that educates and empowers persons with mental health challenges to have healthier, positive social/emotional lives. I picked up a lot of skills for my personal social/emotional health.This week I have found myself feeling and thinking of how fortunate I am to be in this space and an appreciation of my path. Part of me whats to go through each large chuck of my life that I thought was negative or neutral and see it as an opportunity of growth that helped me become (or at least hopefully) a better person. I also want to go and thank every single person in my life for having an impact on me and help shape my life and who I am.  Of course that would take FOREVER but I do want to take the time and space in the universe to share these thoughts:

• learning that loving and supporting others does not mean not loving and supporting myself
• that other people's thoughts about me are their reality, that I do not need to change
• appreciating other people's reality and realizing that my own is subjective
• have the honor of being with my partner. He is an amazing person that I admire and love. I am a better person because of him
• the opportunity and honor to work with diverse populations, especially female youth
• all the cities I've lived in has taught be different parts of being a person - from experiencing different cultures to having the opportunity to understand different eco-systems
• being accepted into Hackbright and meeting amazing people. I am so blessed to have met so many smart and talented women and to share such a special experience with them
• the people in my life that were, are and going to be close to me - shaping me and encouraging me to live my authentic self

Thank you to you for reading this. I used to be so self-conscious of my writing, to the point where having a diary only lasted one or two entries before I would re-read what I wrote and judge myself harshly. Now, I am able to write out my thoughts and experience and share it to the universe. This is an amazing physical representation of how much I have grown.One more thing I should share - I wrote about good news early November and now I can finally share it! I was interviewed for the Teaching Assistance position at Hackbright and I accepted it during the Thanksgiving break. Things have been so busy with career day and career services. This is the perfect position for me, it combines my soft skills and my technical!

Again, Thank you