Esther Park, “Roots” :http://sites.psu.edu/whileonthisjourney/2013/09/06/roots/#comment-3
Esther,
there are so many things in this post that I want to comment on but I will try not to make it a book. First of all, I loved your comment about how people will sometimes ask you which country you prefer, Korea or the U.S. I know that you and I are in two different situations since I have only spent about a year of my life in another country but I used to get that question all the time. People on my very first day of school in France would ask me, “So which country do you like better?” and to be honest with you I never knew how to answer, at least in the beginning. Then as the year went on and people kept asking me that, I realized that there really is no answer to that question, at least not for me. There are certain elements of both countries that I like. For instance, in France I love the language and the way friends and family can sit down at the dinner table for hours at a time and just talk. In the U.S. I love how I can strike up a conversation with a random person standing in the line at the grocery store. There are then things in both countries that I don’t appreciate as much. I guess what I am saying is that I really appreciate the idea that you can have more than one home and love them both. There really is no need to choose which one you like better. When I think about it, it’s hard to even define what “home” is. I’m still working on my definition.
Secondly, I really enjoyed reading about how you went after the opportunity to help PSU build its relationship with SKKU. That is the crazy thing about opportunities, they tend to pop up when we aren’t expecting them but I think they are pretty much everywhere in a way, but it takes a good eye to spot them and ambition to go after them. What you are doing is really inspiring. I feel that many people would have just let an opportunity like this one just slip away because one like this one isn’t very clear cut from the get-go and so they would just try to find something else.
The fact that you decided to go after this opportunity to get involved in building this relationship with Penn State and SKKU says a lot about you as a leader. I love that you are not afraid to go after what you want. I look forward to hearing about your work on this and what comes of it. Good luck!
Christian Heilman “Saying No: A Lesson in Leadership” :http://sites.psu.edu/whatresonates/2013/09/05/saying-no-a-lesson-in-leadership/
Christian,
You have no idea what good timing this post has for me. This semester I have taken on more than I did my first two semesters at Penn State. I’m taking more credits, trying to learn a new language, I took on leadership positions in my clubs and a few extra hours of work and I’m trying to see old friends and make new ones all at the same time. I love being busy and I especially love my new roles in my clubs and having more responsibility. That being said, as we get further into the semester I am slowly realizing that something is most likely going to have to give. I’m really struggling with this because I don’t want to give anything up and the hardest part is knowing that I may have to and make a decision as to what that is.
Saying “no” is such a difficult skill to learn especially with friends. One of the hardest things is learning how to balance one’s own needs such as getting more than 3 hours of sleep a night and being able to put 100% into school work, and the needs of others such as friends and family. Finding this balance sometimes seems impossible because sometimes there is a fine line between being selfless and being selfish. Sometimes saying no feels so selfish. But then I realize that saying no because I need time study to get a good grade on a test or really work on a project for one of my main clubs, is not really selfish it’s just hard to realize that in the moment.
Anyway, I better wrap it up because if I don’t I might just keep going on and on. I’m working on learning to say “no”. It’s inspiring to know that you have made some progress. I hope I will too.