This week I discovered that I don't know myself. At least I do not know myself in depth, but rather I have a superficial understanding of who I am. When I made this realization, I worried that it is too late to figure these things out! That I should already know all about myself, but my best friend reassured me that it is never too late to discover who you are.
This blog post is dedicated to two surveys that we were asked to do for McNair. One was "The Ask-A-Friend Survey" and the second was "The All-About-You Interview." Through these questionnaires, I further discovered that I don't really know that much about myself. And that this is something I want to pursue. I did learn that I am motivated enough to think about these questions and that I am strong enough to admit that I don't have a very deep connection to the answers, but still be able to formulate answers that seem meaningful to me.
In addition to the surveys, I realized I have a lack of self-knowledge through constructive feedback on my personal statement for graduate school. I have learned that I have become very narrow and focused on my academics while coming to college. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it has not aided me in discovering who I am. I can blatantly say that I am a diligent student, which can be observed through looking at my transcripts and I am willing to bet through my letters of recommendation from my professors, but I feel like I deserve more. This summer has been a time of growth far beyond any other time in my life, and it feels incredible! I want to open myself up and indulge in new things and discover more than academics in my life. I want to have, or realize that I have, experiences that can exemplify my personality through demonstrations of things that I have done versus blatantly saying my characteristics. I do not feel bad about all of this, but I am embracing it as a new challenge.
I was recently posed the question, "What will you not give up [when you go to graduate school]?" I didn't have an answer for this question, and that perturbed me a bit. I have come to realize though, that there are things that I will not give up when I go to graduate school. I will not give up my friends and family, I refuse to lose them. And in addition to not giving up relationships, I do not want to give up my personal relationship that I have developed with running. I am determined to continue making time for running. I have discovered that I love to run with my feelings and let them fuel my legs and propel me where ever I am going. :-)
I would like to give you some ideas to the questions that I was posed with the two surveys that led to this blog post. I will include them in a separate blog post and my answers that went with them in case you would like to take a gander. :-)
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