Gratitude and advise to younger self

 There are a myriad of people to whom I am grateful. In the context of my education and what I am trying to do right now, I am without a doubt most grateful to Dr Robin Cotter. She is one of the advisors to the STEAM Club at Phoenix College. She does about a million other things there as well, but I believe that the STEAM Club and Dr Cotter have been instrumental in giving me a place where I could be comfortable exploring science. It's all well and fine to tell someone that they can do something, but it is another thing entirely to create a space where that can be done without feeling self-conscious about what you do or don't already know or what you have or haven't already done. I could go on and on about the ways that Dr Cotter is wonderful, but what she has done for me is to encourage and listen to me and to answer my questions whenever and however she could. She actually pays attention to her students which is amazing because she is one of the hardest working people that I know, and the vast majority of that work is for her students. Because of her support, I am more likely to be brave about educational experiences, and I am more likely to see the potential value of participating in events and opportunities which is something that I have always sorely needed. People are more attracted to doing things in which they feel they can be successful. Dr Cotter has made me feel like I can be successful in my education in a way that I was not at all confident of before. I still have insecurities about what I want to do or how well I am doing, but the experiences that Dr Cotter encouraged me to participate in at Phoenix College have made a difference in what I do when I have those feelings.

If I was going to give my younger self advise, I would tell myself to make better use of my time. When I was younger, I don't think that I realized just how much free time I had. Now that I am older and I have a family, there is always something waiting to be done or that I know that I am getting behind on. I'm a little bit of a perfectionist, so sometimes I have a hard time picking something up that I know that I haven't done as well as I could or that I didn't do correctly in some way. Sometimes you just have to get it done and turn it in. This is still something that I repeat to myself all the time. I think that if I had understood it better when I was younger though that I might be better at it now given the extra time to reflect and work on it. I still get a little paralyzed when things start getting out of hand, but I keep moving. I just have to get it done.