Describe a time that you had to overcome a challenge or difficulty in your life.
How did you resolve the situation? What did you learn from the experience and how did it change you?
When my beloved mother passed away in March 2021, I was occupied with many workloads since it was midterm week. At that time, there was a group project consisting of only two people. My mom passed the night before the deadline, and I still need to finish doing the parts we have split. I decided to do a quick research, write the points of ideas I was trying to convey, and briefly study the data that supported the theories. Then, I asked my colleague to back me up by filling in the details of the ideas I pointed to and arranging them in a structured order of paragraphs. Luckily, he was willing to back me up.
From that moment on, I learned to train my mind to think quickly of solutions, even in times of despair. Some friends said I was hard on myself for still putting work into my assignments during grief. However, I believe that we, as leaders of ourselves, should know that we have many roles in our lives. As a daughter, I lost my mom and should take time to grieve. But as a student, I still have the responsibility to inform and confirm my condition to the person I work with professionally, at the very least. Also, I realized that my mom-who had been an enormous help in her vital role in my growth and education-would want me to be adaptable in many situations.
As we all know, grief lasts a lifetime-especially when one is left by a parent, a primary role in a kid's life. Due to that, for a year-long, I was still occasionally getting grief triggers that would usually affect me psychologically. Not wanting it to affect my daily activities in pursuing my goals academically or non-academically, I braced myself to seek professional help. However, I knew it would cost me money. I was worried my savings wouldn't be ample, considering I'm still a student.
After doing my research in my university by looking for things by myself and asking my academic advisor, I gladly found out that my university has a free counseling service held by the Faculty of Psychology. After registering for the service, the liaison officer informed me about the one-on-one counseling schedule. Long story short, my first session exceeded my expectations. The psychologist made it comfortable for me to be vulnerable and clearly expressed why I needed help. He gave me a fruitful analysis of my condition and how I could commonly lessen the triggers to function best again in my activities, predominantly as a student.
After having several sessions in a month, in the last one, the psychologist mentioned how significant my progress was and how proud he was of me. In his words, I was emotionally intelligent for being aware of my condition. Since then, I have been grateful that I had the courage to listen to myself and what I've been feeling, treating and leading myself in the right direction, which can be seen by my bravery to seek the help of others in the first place.
All in all, my time of difficulties changed me for the better because hurdles guided my mind and heart to find solutions, be sensitive to things happening around me and within me, think to work through situations, and be adjustable in many circumstances.
With my ability to adapt to unexpected and sudden changes and be aware of myself and my surroundings, I would enjoy and be suitable for cross-cultural interactions with everyone I would meet in the U.S. and fellow Global UGRAD awardees from all across the globe.
