The later part of your teenage years can sometimes be more confusing and difficult than the beginning. There are all these big-world changes, like transitioning from high school to college. I’ve found that my late-teens to early twenties has been my period of self-discovery. I’m learning who I am and who I want to be for the rest of my life. With being just a few months short of turning 21 I feel that I have a strong idea of who I am. I know my strengths, and I know my weaknesses.
Although I typically am not a firm believer in adjusting who you are, I decided to make an exception. In honor of Women’s History Month, I chose to take on the personality of Leslie Knope from the NBC show, “Parks and Recreation.” Not even halfway through the first episode I fell in love with Amy Poehler’s character. She exhibits the personality and confidence that I always strive for.
For an entire week, I would ask myself what would Leslie Knope do? I would ask this question multiple times a day when it came to what food to eat, what my priorities should be and how I should act in social situations. I must admit, this was a great experience.
When first watching the show I noticed a few similarities between Knope and myself, such as putting work, or in my case school, ahead of everything else and being a complete perfectionist. By taking on her personality, I nudged my way closer to who I hope to be in life.
By asking myself, “What would Leslie Knope do?” throughout the day, I found myself much more confident and outspoken. She is a woman who is not afraid to not only speak her mind, but speak her mind when her ideas may not be the most popular ones. I found myself participating in class and in group discussions much more than usual.
A huge difference I saw in myself was openly talking to people I usually wouldn’t talk to. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but for me it is. I tend to keep to myself and not talk to anyone until I’m back home. By taking on Knope’s personality, I knew there was no margin for slacking. I took the jump out of my comfort zone and had multiple conversations with random people throughout the day. After the experiment, I will definitely continue this, just maybe not as much.
I found myself much more confident this past week. When my self-esteem is extremely low, I found that by participating more in class and in just regular social conversation I was more accepting of who I am. Although I acknowledge my flaws, being a perfectionist does not always include accepting them.
Knope is extremely confident. She does not care about harsh criticisms or what anyone thinks about her. I hope to one day be able to say that about myself. After this week, though, I can say I took a step in the right direction. I cared less about how I dressed and more about what makes me comfortable.
I walked with my head up and made it a point to make eye contact with people while walking down the hallways. I no longer tried to blend in within the classroom. I am heading in the right direction of becoming as 100 percent confident in my skin as Knope is in hers.
A huge similarity between Knope and myself is that we are both extreme perfectionists. We will not stop a project halfway through because we get bored or tired. We persevere through any hardship or obstacle that may come our way to achieving our end goals. Unfortunately, this regularly means working through the night and well into morning to complete said task.
By chance, this week happened to be extremely busy for me. I ended up staying at school well after classes were over. As a commuter student, I try to avoid any activities that would postpone me going home. Somehow, this week ended up being filled with late-night meetings and projects that kept me almost as a prisoner at school well into the night. By Wednesday I had to fight to stay awake even while standing, waiting for a classroom to open up. I ended up continuing my work well into morning.
I did whatever it meant to satisfactorily say I completed all work for the day. If anyone else is planning to try this, I would highly recommend staying as far away from this terrible “gift” as some say. Sleep is a precious thing. Don’t be like Knope and myself and have only a few hours be the norm. Get as much sleep as you can! If you don’t, things may start to get a little crazy.
To finish my week, of course I had waffles. If there’s nothing else Leslie Knope has taught me it’s this: waffles can fix anything!