My dad has never talked about his military experience much with me. It makes some sense when I think about it. He never deployed, nor saw action. He was also Army National Guard, so from my understanding, he did not move around the country outside of training like a full-time service member would have. This fact could lead someone to believe that his military experience is not important, or that it did not affect him or his children all that much. Or, that he is unworthy of the attention that comes with being a veteran (in all fairness, I do think that he personally feels that way). However, I beg to differ. My dad's experience has had a profound effect on our family and those around us, and thus I recognize the importance of his service and feel he is worthy of recognition. My dad began his service with the National Guard in 1984. At this point, he was still recovering from an unstable home life and from a lack of social support. He needed some kind of direction, and the National Guard helped with that. Over the next eight years, he worked as an electronic technician. Via this MOS, he gained the technical knowledge and other skills needed to enter a trade school in the Midwest, and then work as an electrician for a large railroad company. While my brother and I were born long after his service ended, the military gave him the expertise needed for a career. Then, he had the ability to save and provide for us by the time we were welcomed into the world. Even decades later, I can see how the military continues to help him. On top of providing him with technical knowledge that laid the foundation for his current career, it made him into the father he is now. He regularly provides us with the support and guidance that he did not have in his childhood, and I do not think he would be as effective at doing this had he not entered the military. He demonstrates a great deal of discipline, leadership, character and skills with communication, which are things he was able to impart onto us. He is able to guide me and brother as we enter young adulthood, and I can say with confidence that the military gave him the skills needed to do this as effectively as he has. He has even been able to give guidance to those outside our family. For example, when my boyfriend expressed interest in joining the Marine Reserves, my dad was able to help him through the initial process and re-adjust to life outside of boot camp. My dad had been there before, and my boyfriend and I were grateful we was there to help. I love what my dad has been able to do for us and himself. His military laid the foundation for a better life for himself, his children, and those around us.

My experience with anxiety has been chronic, challenging, and lifelong. Unfortunately, I do not remember when I did not experience it, and it has seeped into every facet of my life, one way or another. Even as a toddler, I was anxious and perfectionistic. I frequently became angry or upset if something was less than perfect, or if I did not perform a task well enough to meet my own standards--even as a three-year-old. I have not parsed if this anxiety is genetic, or from learned behavior, or how I was raised, though it is probably some combination of the three. Regardless, throughout my childhood, there were a plethora of behavioral patterns (and genetic patterns as well--both parents and half of my grandparents have had symptoms consistent with anxiety and depression) that I am now confident should have lent themselves to a diagnosis. Consistent feelings of inferiority, insomnia, fear of asking questions, fear of getting in trouble despite doing nothing wrong, constant people-pleasing behaviors (especially around adults), and more. Even around age twelve, I began to act more and more "adult", so much as I was considered "mature for my age". In reality, I was immature, just as all twelve-year-olds ought to be. I just hid and suppressed my immature behaviors, again, for fear of punishment. Compliance was mistaken for docility. Going into my teens I still felt the need to look to authority figures for approval or validation, since I could rarely produce these things within myself. I always needed to know I was doing the right thing, at least in their eyes. Disapproval was a horrid thing to receive; it alone could have crushed me. By the time I was halfway through high school, I was beginning to consider that the constant restlessness, the perfectionism, the people-pleasing, have a definitive source; a mental source. My concerns were consistently dismissed by my teachers, parents, and even friends alike. One of my teachers told me that when she looks at me, she sees a completely normal teenage girl, with normal, teenage-girl-esc anxieties. Never mind the mounting anxiety issues I had just confided in her about, or the increasing intensity of my sensory issues (a symptom that was new at the time, though I have struggled much with it since). No, to everyone, I was normal, with normal teenage anxieties. However, much to my dismay, chronic mood disorders do not tend to disappear when a sufferer reaches adulthood. College came around the corner and with its increased responsibilities, the anxiety became unbearable. My sensory issues worsened, and I began to experience panic attacks. At the recommendation of a friend, I sought therapy through our school's counseling center. While therapy was immensely helpful, receiving a diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder and medication allowed me to progress the most. Since I started taking the proper dosage, experiences and activities that would have shaken me before have had less of an effect. Even getting diagnosed helped me alone, as it allowed me to put a name to my experiences. With help from therapy and medication, I was able to graduate with my Bachelor's in Psychology. From here, I will soon be entering a Master's program in Psychology as well. This is important to me, as I will be going into this program with a fresh outlook on myself. I am now more confident and resilient. I can validate, advocate, and approve of myself far better than I could in the past. While anxiety still presents itself in my daily life, I can now live with it, rather than against it.

In the second-to-last semester of my undergraduate career, one of my Industrial-Organizational Psychology class lectures covered leadership in organizations and workplaces. This lecture defined what leadership was, various types of leadership, and how leadership positions were different from run-of-the-mill supervisory or managerial positions. I intend to make use of this lecture as a framework to explain how I lead others and why I lead them. In class, leadership was defined as a method of directing tasks and carrying the principle responsibility for the outcomes of those tasks. The goal of any leader is to influence a person, usually towards the completion of a task or goal, and hopefully, for the betterment of all parties involved. Leadership, however, becomes successful and effective when it changes the behavior of followers due to the way they were lead, and is satisfying to all parties. These definitions, when I initially heard them, reminded me of teaching people to draw and paint. I can lead them through the process of learning these skills, influence them to practice on their own, so that eventually they can draw and paint recognizable subjects without assistance. This outcome and, hopefully, my guidance, will be satisfying to the learner as well as myself. However, being a leader does not end at changing behavior of the follower. Rather, good leadership always starts with the leader. The recognition of this fact alone is important to anyone that wants to lead others, though two more critical facets of leadership also exist. First, leaders are not merely concerned with what needs to be done, but how it needs to be done as well. Leaders, like myself, care much about the process of tasks, so they may delegate tasks to followers (if they are a part of a team), or at least guide them through the process so the tasks can be completed correctly. The final and most important trait of leaders is that they recognize that leadership is, at the end of the day, a social exchange. Whether I was teaching a friend to draw, assisting my Psi Chi members while I was their chapter president, or leading a group of students in class, I always had to remember that effective leadership and task-completion take trust and honesty from all parties, but especially myself. All other facets of leadership--attempted, successful, and/or effective--crumble when social contracts and exchanges are not honored. Thus, I firmly believe that I am a leader, since I continuously work to embody and display these traits in my career, my education, and in my personal life.

Like most people, I did not always want to go down the path that I am following now. I jumped around a lot as I was deciding my career. I went from an anesthesiologist to a freelance artist to an auto mechanic, and even a mortician. However, in whatever career I went with, I wanted to do two primary things: help people, and solve problems. I knew deep-down that doing these things each day would leave me feeling fulfilled, as well as help those around me feel the same. The careers I previously considered involve plenty of problem-solving and people-helping (some more than others, I admit), but none really stuck until I became more fascinated with psychology. After taking a few classes in the subject, I knew that something related to psychology was what I truly wanted to do with my life. And, specifically, I wanted to be a therapist. After all, solving problems and helping people are the main things a therapist does; surely I would love it. Well, a few counseling-related classes later, I found that I did not love it as much as I thought I would. Burnout and emotional exhaustion are commonplace in the field, as is caregiver fatigue, imposter syndrome, etc., etc. All of which are experiences that scared me. After all, I have experienced plenty of that in my personal life. While I learned a lot in these classes, the most principle lesson was that this was not the career path for me. I did not need these potential experiences to leak into my professional life as well. However, this left me with a dilemma. I got involved in psychology because I wanted to be a therapist, what else was there to do? As it turns out, a lot can be done with a psychology degree. And just as I was starting to ponder these questions, I heard about an up-and-coming subdiscipline of psychology: Industrial/Organizational Psychology, or workplace psychology. Psychologists in this field could work as all sorts of things, such as career counselors, human resources specialists, professors, researchers, recruiters, and what I want to do--work as a business consultant. This role will allow me to diagnose and research problems within organizations, then create plans and recommendations that will alleviate those issues. I could also make the lives of employees within those organizations better through my recommendations, so I would be able to help people and make an impact in their lives. However, to get there, I will need to check a few items off the bucket list, so-to-speak. First, I will need to earn my Master's degree in I/O Psychology to begin working as a consultant. After that, many consultants work to complete their doctorate degree in the same, and I plan to be no different. Until I accomplish these, I will keep learning, researching, and working diligently to meet those goals and make my dream of solving problems come true.

Solving problems is all I ever wanted to do. Even as a little kid, I wanted to solve the mystery of how the dinosaurs went extinct by working as an archeologist (I was pretty close to solving that one too; I even found "dinosaur bones" in the backyard to prove it. And, no, there is no way those were just rocks or funny-looking sticks). However, over a decade later, plans have changed for the most part. But the desire to create solutions to problems stuck around, even long after I moved away from that backyard. Now, I am a Master's degree student in Southeast Missouri State's Industrial/Organizational Psychology program. I want to solve problems, not in archeology labs, but in workplaces and organizations as a business consultant. While many business consultants have a Master's degree in I/O Psychology or a business-related field, many elect to pursue a Ph.D. One day, I hope to do this as well, and have taken several steps to prepare myself for this undertaking and subsequent career. First, I have worked incredibly hard to achieve my Bachelor's degree in Psychology. I was able to graduate with honors and with research experience under my belt. Being able to contribute to my discipline so early on was a great experience, and I know it will help my chances of getting into good graduate programs. I also plan to continue this momentum and do research in my Master's program, which will help me when I go to apply for a Ph.D. program later on. Another important step I have taken was to save money wherever I can so that I can afford this education. I was able to live at home and work part-time during my undergraduate career, which helped me build up my savings. In addition, I worked quickly to secure a full-time job immediately after I finished my Bachelor's degree. Taking this route allowed me to gain experience in data entry and make meaningful connections with my colleagues. On top of that, I have applied for scholarships of all kinds to maintain these savings as I pay for college. While I was taking these steps towards building my career, I have picked up some valuable skills and interests that align well with these goals. Conducting undergraduate research showed me how much I enjoy the research process, for instance. Using scientific principles and methods is a major facet of business consulting, especially from an I/O point of view. I/O Psychologists who work as consultants often gather data from an organization's employees (whether via surveys, interviews, or focus groups) to identify problems. The classes I took in my undergraduate career also sharpened my skills in psychology and communication, which are important for any business consultant to possess. These skills will help me as a consultant, as I anticipate communicating potential solutions to the issues I found in my research. I hope this work will make organizations and workplaces run more effectively, while also improving workers' lives at their jobs.

I grew up playing MarioKart for the Wii. My family absolutely loved it, especially my mom and I. Years after first getting the game, we still sit down to play versus races every now and again. It took me an incredible amount of time to branch out and try any other MarioKart iteration, though. I guess one could say I was too attached. Still, I would say this is my favorite Nintendo game of all time, and many great memories were made with this game. However, my favorite multiplayer experience is learning about a different game in the series. My boyfriend had gotten a Switch with MarioKart 8 on it. After he practiced for a few weeks, he invited me to play against him, knowing how much I loved MarioKart. I was hesitant, since there were some changes I knew would take getting used to. Namely, not being able to pop a wheelie on bikes, drifting, graphics, etc. However, pretty soon into our first few matches, I had my "ah-ha!" moment. Everything became clearer, and soon I was able to keep up with my boyfriend. It was exciting to see all of the new tracks and learn them as I went. And, by the time we played our second round, I won against him. It was really exciting to be able to transfer my MarioKart Wii skills to the new format, and pick up on all the differences so quickly.