CONFIDENCE.

By Lindsay Roman

This past Friday, I was given the pleasure of escorting alumni Tyhira Stovall to the Slippery Rock University Communication & Media Hall of Fame where she received the Young Alumni Award.

Having the experience of sitting with a panel of people who talked about what it takes to be in this field was life-changing for me. Recently, I’ve been struggling with my confidence as a student. I feel like my work has to be perfect and stand out. Otherwise, I’ll be overlooked.

Although, they talked about how important it is to be confident in whatever you’re doing whether it’s in your field, what you’re wearing, what you believe in, etc. You have to fake it until you make it, you have to stand up for yourself, you have to be willing to shake a new person’s hand and think to yourself, “Yes, I will be their next employee.”

You have to be able to accept that everything you do in the workforce or everything you wear may not be what everyone else wants you to wear. Although, what you want is GOOD ENOUGH. Be confident in that, be confident in the fact that you WILL make mistakes in whatever you’re doing! You will be the best version of you - you can be.

I will be choosing to use their advice and all the advice I got from the entire day to my future work and how I choose to talk about myself. The way we choose to talk about ourselves can really change the way we think.

I hope this connects with people like me who may not have found their niche, who haven’t found what style they love, and who crave perfectionism - and I hope you know that it’s okay. Be confident in that. Be confident in yourself. You will go far and be the person you hope to be. You will find your path and it will work out whatever the way it was planned to.