Adapting to change has been a lifelong lesson for me. As an immigrant, I adapted to a completely new environment when I came to the US at the age of 5. Within schools, I adapted to the change in language and customs. Within my communities I adapted to the change in culture of living and surviving. Adapting to change and thinking creatively has kept me alive all these years, and as a leader I have worked to refine that to the best of my abilities. For me, adapting has been a survival mechanism that has allowed me to support my family and to develop myself. This competency has been with me all my life and has taken a particularly different role within my time here at George Mason University and within the LEAD Office. As an LC, I understood the different commitments that were required of me, from weekly meetings and office hours, to different programs and other miscellaneous tasks.
Juggling everything going on in my personal life and work life was not easy throughout the school year. Sometimes plans change within the office and some weeks there are a few more commitments than others, and the same could be said within my personal life. Having lived on campus my first semester, most of my personal life was reserved to the biweekly visits home. That changed when I moved back home for the second semester and found myself supporting my family and getting a lot more responsibilities at home that I didn’t have to worry about as much during my first semester. It wasn’t easy, but I worked with what I had and still was able to manage everything to the best of my abilities. As an LC, not only am I given different responsibilities throughout the school year but I also am given the support from the different members of the LEAD team. All my life, I worked on my ability to adapt to change and think creatively in order to make ends meet and support myself and my family. All my life, I did that alone. What LEAD has afforded me is the opportunity to not have to bear the burden of the world alone, but to challenge myself to ask for help when I needed to. Even though I didn’t always reach out for support, the LEAD team has been there in support through some of the roughest times this school year. I’ve learned that I don’t always have to adapt to change alone, and that even though on the outside it may look like I’m put together and willing to tackle the world, I can also think outside the box and ask for help when need be instead of thinking that the one way I grew up is the only way of thinking up solutions for problems.