With International Women’s day falling around two weeks ago, this past month has been filled with many inspirational quotes, pictures, videos, and speeches by amazing women around the world. Admittedly, I never really take to heart, or celebrate in any way, these “international” days such as international siblings day or pet day. I put March 7th, International Women’s day, in this bucket I have in my brain where all the other non-important or fake holidays, where I would much rather go to school and see my friends than think about what the day really means, or how my life contributes to it. Yet, this year was much different to my surprise. Looking back, it begins make more sense why I would pay more attention to this day, and realize just how big of an impact it had on me. I am beginning to be on my own in a sense, with not living at home anymore and creating my own persona rather than an being an extension of my parents. Now more than ever I have developed my own ideas and beliefs, and have encounters many challenges along the way in college that I would have never experienced in High School. The role of being a young women is ever present in my mind in various aspects such as my friends, my sorority, my classes, and more. When March 7th came around, this quote I came across jumped out at me, and resinated with me deeply. Over the past two years at Lehigh there have been a wide range of experiences, many happy and others leaving me feeling defeated or simply lost with myself and those around me. I was often confused, frustrated, angry, and sometimes I wished I could have the mind of the boy like my three brothers; maybe then I wouldn’t overthink so much and thus cause less problems in my life. Robbins words told me what I needed to hear at that time. I should be and am now proud of my abilities and the emotional strength that I have. I am thankful for the challenges in my life and negative aspects of my personality that make me unique and allow me to not only learn more about myself, but also change and grow in order to be more successful in the future. International Women’s day is an amazing day to thank the amazing women in our lives, and reflect on how we ourselves can become stronger and more successful women in our own way.
Quote: “You can’t always control how you feel, but you can always control how you react” – Mel Robbins
Cole Callahan