Confidence hasn’t always been an easy characteristic for me to grasp hold of. As I said in my little paragraph of who has effected me and why, it took me awhile it was not an overnight process it took time. In a major way confidence has helped me become bold when making a decision and not to be timid like a rabbit. If I were to give confidence a definition for how much it has helped me it would be these few words bold, outgoing and,don’t not try something because you are too scared.
At first, I wasn’t to sure about this whole confidence deal. I mean I was fine, I had my friends and everything in my world was going great, at least that is what I thought. One day my junior year of high school I was being my normal self but not the bubbly,happy, smiley person I was as a freshman. So I decided to go to my guidance counselor and I asked her for help. I told her I was up for the challenge and that I wanted to become more confident in who I was. Right there it began, my “confidence training”, Each Friday I would go to her office and she would give me a challenge and depending on what I was struggling with that week it’d center around that issue. One of my first challenges was to raise my hand in class and ask the teacher a question I had. That week I asked a question in my history class and the two others in my math class. Friday came around and we talked about how my challenge had went and how I think it helped me become confident. Each week I’d do a new challenge and slowly I started gaining more confidence, I started talking more, and standing up straight. One week I literally worked on looking people in the eye when I would talk to them. That was a really hard one to accomplish, because I did not like to confront a person and actually look them in the eye. There is a lot that happened those two years that she helped me with. Sometimes I would have to work on the same project just because I was having a really difficult time with it.
Next was putting the confidence that I had just gained, now it was time for me to put it into action. Whether that meant me being very talkative or if that meant me looking someone in the eye when I was talking to them. It took a lot of work, as I said in the beginning it wasn’t always easy. One of the big characteristics that I really learned is to be bold when I’m making a decision. Now when I have to make a decision, I tell myself “I’ve got this” and “I am going to do just fine” with whatever I choose”. One way this was put into action is when I went in to get my first job this past summer. I couldn’t be timid when I went into the restaurant to get an application. I had to be confident in asking for an application and it went really well when I went in to get an application. I ended up getting an interview later that week. So when I went into the interview I gave myself a little pep talk and I told myself “ you’ve got this, you are a very good candidate for this job, show them your bubbly, loveable self, go get em’ girl!”.
Finally, the biggest stepping stone I had to step over to really get my confidence to the top. I talked at senior chapel about my confidence journey and to be you for you, don’t be the you that your friends like just because they are influencing you a lot. In the end, friends come and go. People will always have something to say something about you that they don’t like about you. For me I really have to remember to be me for me, because at the end of the day my confidence is mine, it’s not someone else’s. Now fast forward to this past spring, the morning of senior chapel, I was confident in myself and in the message I had to share and if I helped just one person then my job was done.
Gaining my confidence has been great for me because not only was it a little bit of a challenge to get at first but in the end all the hard work paid off. I’ve become more outgoing, I smile more, I found myself again since gaining confidence. It has truly changed my life. I’m not the same girl who walked into those high school doors.
