Breaking Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Being a woman in college is already a hard enough task. Trying to balance an education, internships, social life and possibly a job can be a lot. Yet, now it seems as if people are always expecting more from us and one of those things includes “Going outside of your comfort zone.” When I hear this term, I often roll my eyes and wonder how on earth am I even supposed to achieve this. Hearing this phrase one too many times, I decided that I was going to figure out this dilemma. I have chosen to create my own definition of this confusing term and apply it to my everyday life.
Where to start? I’ll begin with how I got to where I am today, a college freshman at Marquette University. For me, coming to college was one of the biggest ways I moved out of my “comfort zone.” This step threw me into a new environment with no familiarities. I moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a new city eight and half hours away from my suburb of Detroit. I was put in a dorm with someone I had never met before and was expected to meet new people and strive for success. This was certainly a challenge, but even after that difficult step I decided to push it one step further. For me, that next step was to try new clubs and activities that I had no idea if I would enjoy. This step was absolutely terrifying, but overall rewarding. It was a complete task of trial and error and eventually I found things to be passionate about on Marquette’s campus, including Marquette Radio and CPC. These passions were not without tribulations. Finding out I wasn’t meant to sing in an Acappella group or participate in rock climbing were a bit of a letdown, but just meant I was meant to be elsewhere.
Pushing myself to try activities and pursue new challenges that make me feel self-conscious have really helped me figure out how to get out of that “comfort zone” I hear so much about. Every day I try to do something I find scary. This task is uncomfortable at time,s but in the end, it is worth it. Through this cycle, you become more confident in knowing who you are as a person. Maybe after trying something unexpected, you find a hobby that you really enjoy. After all, I never enjoyed writing, but after I stopped putting up those barriers I ended up here writing this article you are reading. Don’t be afraid to leave your “comfort zone,” as I have. You might just find out that it is not as terrifying as you once imagined.