I believe, contrary to our instinctive urges, that in my experiences of being brave has to do with my own individual comfort zone. Now to understand what I am saying we have to understand what a comfort zone is, "The comfort zone is a behavioral state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk" PositivePsychology.com. Personality, I think when we constantly lean into the discomforts of life we can easily develop our resilience muscles. Resilience is defined as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.” Initially, stepping out of your comfort zone is a scary process. As humans we want to live our lives the way we are used to. We want things to go easy and with low to no stress. But what we fail to notice in these past situations is that stress is not always a bad thing, in fact, our minds, bodies, and souls do not grow without it. As Brandon Urie once said, "I’ve learned that if I jump headfirst into something I’m terrified about, I subside all the anger and anxiety and fear so I can just get through the whole process. Then I’m usually happy at the end because I’ve done something I’m so scared about and the reward is so much greater because of it”. Dealing with facing my comfort zone is my way of living boldly because it takes courage to step from my comfort zone into my fear zone. I've been a person who has found it really hard to count on people due to the situations I've been in but it is very rewarding to look back and reflect on all the things I have managed to achieve.

Going back on all the things that happened in my life the biggest most life changing event that has happened to me was when I was placed into foster care. When my home got taken away from me. But I never actually knew what home actually was until I viewed the more optimistic side when I was foster care. In the dictionary the definition for home is, 1. the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household. But that definition is wrong, because home isn't always a member of a family because not everyone actually has that. For me home is the future because that is something that I can look forward to. As humans we have all these basic ideas of what things are but do we really understand what they are or do we just think we know. Me stating what I truly think home means is one of them. Over periods of time things change for every single person on this earth. I used to believe that the googled definition for home was true. When I lived with my parents I really thought that was my home and that I would be there forever until I was going to start my life. But things changed and that home got taken away from me. I didn’t know what home was after that. I was lost and confused. But now I know that my home never did get taken away from me. And now I understand that my life has really started and that is what is making any place a home for me. Me knowing that I have everything without the exception of my parents and I am still able to thrive is what home is for me through an optimistic view.

I've always been a reader for as long as I can remember. There's something about reading that just transforms our understandings and expands our world views as we grow as individuals. Reading allows us to feel connected with others and part of something bigger than ourselves. One quote that I will always remember is, "Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible” (Tony Robbins.) This quote helped me understand why setting goals is beneficial. It explains how setting goals can give you something to pursue—it takes that idea and makes it real. There’s something about the process of setting goals that moves your objectives from theoretical to practical. It’s not enough to just consider what you want to accomplish. You must take the time to be specific in setting your goals with time frames for achieving them. So this is why I have set myself with a long-term goal which has been impacted by circumstances that happened during my life. Such as me being in foster care which has definitely impacted a lot of the decisions that I've made. I want to be a Social Worker and change the lives of children who feel hurt and neglected. I know as our recovery journey begins, we'll learn, we'll grow, we'll cry, and we'll wait. I want to help change their views on life as I did mine. Like fields of frazzled flowers, we'll scatter seeds of truth and goodness, changing the dynamic of this place where love and addiction meet. I want to change the foster care system to where foster teens can feel like after they have no one or no where to go they can have a place that doesn’t make them feel out of place. That is my goal for the future.

Although I can't say I have a favorite book I can say I have read books that have impacted the way I see certain things. One book that has really struck me is called "Fighting Words" by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. One of the beauties of Fighting Words, aside from tackling a large subject such as sexual abuse and foster care is it addresses the importance of sisterhood, found family, friendship, and finding strength in oneself. One of the reasons why this book really stood out to me was because I was able to relate to it on a more personal note. Growing up I was faced with emotionally damaging parents who were not suited to be parental figures in the slightest. They made some really bad decisions and chose drugs over the safety of their own kids. Making us lean on each other to be our own parental figure. So when the day came when we all went into foster care we took it as an open window. We all thought that due to this huge change that it would help them clean up their act and they would get us back. It felt like no one understood my feelings or cared about me. I was angry at the world for taking me away from my parents. So many things were going through my head that day but the main thing that was going through my head was anger. I started to not care about anyone’s feelings because I felt like no one cared about mine. But then I came across this book and it totally changed my view on what was really important. I've come to realize now that I've been blessed in so many ways after entering the foster care system with true parental figures.