Alieh Kimbeng
When I immigrated to the US a few years ago, I was a naive teenager who believed everything portrayed on the media and what I told about other ethnicities. I believed the stereotypes about African Americans, Muslims and other ethnic groups. Like some teenagers who immigrate from an African country, I sort “white approval”.
A few months ago, I was about to graduate with a Masters in Health Informatics and didn’t have any idea what I was going to do. I applied to so many jobs and got rejected as much as I applied, but that didn’t stop me from applying although sometimes it made me doubt my ability and value. I kept on applying and eventually I got job offers, some of the pays were quite disappointing, which made me doubt myself even more. I eventually got an offer from a renowned company, to do what I’ve always wanted to do. The pay was really good but I felt like it could be better, so I renegotiated my salary. This was the first time I’ve ever done this so I had no clue what to do. I asked for help from an employer relations coordinator at my school and I was able to write a good salary negotiation letter. I eventually accepted the job offer which meant I had so much more on my plate.
A few weeks ago, I really wanted to go see deadpool 2 but most of my friends were busy or out of town and I didn’t want to go alone.I was facetiming a friend and she encouraged me go alone and take myself on a date. She also said I wouldn’t have to share popcorn lol. I was hesitant at first because I had never been to the movies alone and I didn’t want to look like I had no friends.
Living an active lifestyle could be a lot of fun but also very challenging. I am usually good at working out or staying active when I am on a schedule, because I can just incorporate my workouts into my daily routine. I recently graduated and I’ve more free time with little or no schedule. You would think this would make it easier for me workout and stay active but, NO.. I went from working out 5X a week when I was super busy to barely working out 3X a week now.
Do presentations or public speaking give you so much anxiety which makes your voice shaky, and make you feel like you are about to pass out? I have always been super anxious about presentations and public speaking(including class participation), which made me avoid them as much as possible. But as time went by, I realized that this was only making things worst even though it gave me temporary relieve. So I asked myself, “What is making me anxious and why am I so afraid”? That’s how I came up with these 3 steps.
If you have any form of social media, you’ve probably seen people posting their achievements, travels, lavish lifestyles, designer merchandise etc and sometimes you may feel like you’re not doing enough for yourself. I’ve been trying to answer what it really means to invest in myself and at first I thought it was all about becoming financially stable and making a name for myself but I’ve come to realize that, that’s just 10% of it. So what’s the other 90% ?
Alieh Kimbeng 