There I was, sitting in a new class at the beginning of the semester. Surrounded by other aspiring students in a Bioethics class aimed at helping us tackle moral, social, and economic questions in the healthcare field, our teacher wanted to "get to know us" by going around the classroom asking for our names, our year and major, and what we were interested in pursuing within our career.
"Lindsay, 4th year Health Science Major, interested in pursuing public health," said one student, and as it got closer and closer to me having to speak in front of the class I could feel my heartbeat start to increase and my breathing begin to shorten. As a first year in a class filled with upper class students, I felt out of place; but what was I so scared of? Being accepted? Being liked?
This stress-induced response is one many people are familiar with, where we sometimes feel paralyzed focusing on being able to speak and say the "right" things and oftentimes miss other pertinent information or still stumble upon our words. Like when you're first meeting a potential friend and you miss their name because you're too focused on not messing up your own name, or when you have to speak in front of a large crowd of your peers, this response can be extremely unwelcome.
That's when it hit me - as unwelcome as this feeling was, I realized this was the response when you're pushed out of your comfort zone. I decided to capitalize on this response, and in that way present the best version of myself in front of my peers, despite the awkwardness I felt. I didn't run away from this feeling... I embraced it.
"Hi, I'm Austin, a first year Pharmacy major. I'm really interested in developing new drugs."
I realized getting out of the comfort zone is essential to my growth and development. Constantly engaging in new experiences where I feel awkward is important, because this is when growth occurs. None of us want to stay in a stasis our entire life, and for maximum growth we have to engage with new people and get out of our comfort zones and have new experiences.
For the rest of my college years - scratch that, for the rest of my life - I hope to constantly push the boundaries of what I think I can achieve, and set realistic, yet hard goals to push myself and continue to grow throughout life. The comfort zone is comforting, but I'm not looking for comforting: I'm looking for experiences, experiences to see what life has to offer.
I hope for you all to do the same, and for you to never settle in your lives. I think you'll be amazed at what you can achieve when you embrace the feeling and push yourself. Thank you for reading!
-Extreme
