# data[].attributes.body
Today I had my first outside-of-class meeting with my partner for a group project in another class. My partner is not a member of the cohort, rather she is already a practicing professional in the field of higher education. I went into the meeting today expecting that my partner would not listen much to my input or that she might think what I add doesn’t hold as much value since I haven’t been in the field as long. I definitely had a fixed mindset, so I went into the meeting just wanting to get it over with. To my surprise, my partner was actually really open with hearing what I had to say, and she seemed to respect the points that I made. This is a really specific situation, but I think it’s something that happens to me a lot—I assume that people don’t think what I have to say holds value, they think it’s stupid/I’m not smart enough to be mentioning it, etc. But, generally speaking, most professionals I’ve interacted with genuinely appreciate and welcome the perspective and points that I have to make. Time and time again I go into a conversation or meeting like this with a fixed mindset and I walk out wondering why I let those negative thoughts clutter my mind in the first place—I suppose that, in and of itself, is growth.

# data[].attributes.body
Today was the leadership conference. I presented with my colleague on how to use and reflect on your past and current experiences to make intentional decisions on opportunities moving forward. While the content of our presentation was good, the attendance was low. We had 4 students for our presentation who seemed to take something away, but because it was such a small group, we finished the presentation very quickly. Today I found myself focusing on our low attendance and the minimal attention the students paid to us afterwards during discussion. I dwelled on only having 4 people show up, because the activity that I had planned required much more than 4 people. I reverted back to letting these thoughts control me and I have a really bad habit of using information like this to determine my worth. But, after sulking for awhile, I told myself 1) attendance for the entire event was low 2) two of the presenters who presented at the same time as us were in the program that these attendees were a part of—of course they’d choose to go to a presentation of someone they know and 3) it was a Saturday...no one wanted to be there. Once I got out of my head and moved towards a growth mindset, I was able to identify why the experience didn’t go as I had hoped, and I was able to separate myself from the “problem” (which is unheard of, for me).

# data[].attributes.body
Today I had an appointment with a student and I was informed that our new Career Peer Advisor was going to be shadowing me for the appointment. Initially I was really excited, and I’d like to think I had a growth mindset because I was really open to any questions the new peer might have. However, prior to my meeting, a coworker of mine was telling me about their experience working with the new peer and how the new peer was overstepping during the appointment they shadowed. This annoyed me more than anything, and certainly made me opt for more of a fixed mindset—I definitely assumed that the new career peer was going to be overly chatty or offer inaccurate input, etc. Instead, during our appointment, I had to ask them multiple times if they had anything they wanted to add. The new career peer was not at all what I anticipated, and I am nearly frustrated with myself for letting my opinion change so quickly based off of someone else’s experience. That is something I will need to work on.

# data[].attributes.body
I have always been a shy person, or at least until you get to know me. I have never been the type of person to speak out or raise my hand in class, and I would never volunteer for a position or a committee that would require me to 1) present (are you kidding me? Why would I force myself into a public speaking engagement that’s not for a grade?) and 2) talk with new people alone. I’ve been trying to slowly work on these things, and I nearly have the public speaking component down. The others? Not so much. Recently, I volunteered to serve on the Veterans Wellness Day committee. I am in charge of securing and contacting all of our NSU partners. For the Veterans Wellness Day, Matt (in Veteran Affairs) mentioned that he wanted a presentation related to career development. Of course, working in career I knew we could do that, but my boss and I decided to take it further. Today, I had my first solo meeting with the three Veteran career experts at CareerSource Broward. I was so nervous to go in, even though this was a meeting I invited them to and it’s something that I was knowledgeable on. The meeting went well and there ended up being good dialogue, so I think I moved from a fixed mindset to an growth mindset when I decided to take on this opportunity and stop letting my anxiety get in the way.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why We’re Socially Awkward and Why That’s Awesome | Ty Tashiro | TEDxNashville

# data[].attributes.body
I’ve worked with a colleague of mine in career development since the beginning of the fall semester to do Veteran Drop-ins in the Veteran Resource Center. My colleague recently moved to a full-time position in the office, so she is no longer able to come to the Veteran Drop-ins with me. While this is typically fine, I have found that the Veteran population is one that values long relationships and rapport building, and although I’ve been doing my best, most of them are still much more comfortable with my colleague because they’ve known her longer. Anyways, today I had a growth mindset toward the situation, as I kept telling myself that they need time to get to know me just as they needed time to get to know her last year, etc. However, that all came to a halt when my colleague came by and told me that, “I got this” and essentially “all is well”. For some reason, that put me back into a fixed mindset. I think it’s because I was thinking—I don’t need to hear that from you, I already know I’ll be fine (which I admit sounds rude, but that was my immediate way to cope). But in reality, I was anxious and hearing her say that made me compare myself to her again. Looking back, especially after typing this all out, it seems really petty to put this much thought into drop-ins, but hey, that’s me.

# data[].attributes.body
My friend invited me to a concert with her in Tampa. Her mom got her tickets and she asked if I wanted to go. I believe it’s called the Gasparilla Music Festival. I said yes, because who doesn’t love a good music festival. The headliner is Brandy Carlile. I don’t know Brandi Carlile, and I don’t know anybody else who will be there. But that’s okay, I’m looking forward to it anyways. A simple growth mindset for today—in the past, if it wasn’t my jam, you wouldn’t catch me at a concert.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Brandi Carlile - The Eye (Official Video)

# data[].attributes.body
I’ve had a very fixed mindset lately about my practicum for the summer due to the recent circumstances. I will be working in academic advising at NSU over the summer and will be doing my work remotely until (or rather if??) the university opens. Lately, I’ve been pretty bummed because my practicum is only one day a week, and I was already concerned about learning a limited amount in one day in person. Now, I have to do the same but it’s online. As I got to thinking, though, there are some people who don’t have a practicum or internship at all now. And, mine is in the field that I want to go into. I’m still going to learn valuable things, and even if I don’t take as much from it as I’d like, it will still be a good experience. I start next Monday so we will see where this takes us.