A significant experience I’ve had at IUPUI during my first semester is joining Xiphos Corps. I’ve always wanted to dance in a group ever since I was little, but I didn’t have the resources for it. Now that I’ve joined, I’ve made so many new friends and although I’m very new to dance, I’ve learned a lot and realized I can do anything I can put my mind to. Another significant experience is volunteering for the MAC clinic. Working with these kids to improve their motor skills taught me how to interact with patients further into my career and apply the knowledge I learned in my Kinesiology classes to the MAC clinic.

What I learned about myself from these experiences is that I can be extremely persistent if I put my mind to it. Even though I get easily discouraged when I’m not great at something immediately, I was patient when it came to learning how to dance and how to interact with the MAC clinic kids and soon I was able to hone these skills and be able to learn more and develop in those areas.

A big lesson I learned is that being patient while learning something is crucial to growing as a person. I was very nervous joining Xiphos Corps because I didn’t know a thing about dance, but the people around me encouraged me to do better and I eventually got better at it and began to enjoy it a lot. I can apply this to the rest of my life to my future classes and career as well. There will be certain challenges in my academic and future career that I won’t be able to get or understand instantly, and being patient and hardworking will eventually lead me to becoming better at those subjects. A piece of advice I’d give myself next semester is to keep trying even when things don’t go your way.