#7

I found the meeting activities to be very beneficial. Drawing reminded me of what I value in life and helped me to re-focus on my goals and aspirations. The front cover of my card is a great representation of the good things in my life and it helps me establish some sort of inner peace even if only for that moment when I'm looking at it. I also really appreciated the inside of the card where everyone wrote something about you. I value this because it's always interesting to see what others think of you and all of the comments in my card were positive. I was really grateful for the positive feedback given to me. I think it's important for people to know their impact on one another. Especially the positive impact!

I plan to focus on not comparing myself to others. I think this gives me a sense of despair because I feel like I haven't done enough, thus, belittling my accomplishments. If I were to focus more on my individual goals and accomplishments rather than those of others, I'd be much happier. What makes me happy is reflection. I like to reflect on the good things in my life like my family, my health, and my education and how they all make me a better person. There are so many things I am grateful for and it makes me happy. I definitely want to allow for more reflection/appreciation time for the rest of the semester. I also want to stay away from excessive negative thoughts. The article shows that this only pushes me further and further away from happiness.

The capstone project is a work-in-progress. We talked about incorporating our meetings with the high school students from the empowerment pipeline into the final video. I really like this idea because it will really demonstrate our accomplishments in the STARS program.

I am hanging out at home during spring break! It has been a blast so far. I do nothing related to school all day and I get to enjoy my mom's home-cooked meals. I missed hanging out with my family a lot so I am very appreciative of this break. AND it's right in the middle of midterms for me so it's a huge stress-reliever. I might go visit a friend at NIU this weekend so that should be fun too.

As for summer plans... they are still in the works. My family and I might either go to Mexico or Los Angeles to visit family. Plans or no plans, I'm just excited for summer to come!