Using strengths to embrace uncertainty

Uncertainty. A gut wrenching, anxiety-inducing feeling that sits in your stomach. Uncertainty makes every life decision frightening, whether it’s in relationships, your identity, your goals, or your future. “Uncertainty” was the epitome of my freshman year.

The anxiety of an unpredictable future caused me hesitation and insecurity about where to place my time, energy, and focus. I felt scattered and wavering with my interests, unsure about how to start my journey towards self-discovery. I began my fall semester in international relations, but by winter, I hastily changed to a biology major.

My sophomore year, I decided to join a living learning community (LLC) called Thrive. Unlike other LLCs at Virginia Tech, Thrive was not a college major focused community. Instead, the community equipped students to utilize their individual strengths in their day-to-day lives.

Strengths? I recalled the Gallup CliftonStrengths survey my R.A. suggested everyone take my freshman year. It is hard to believe that there was a time when my top five strengths ever looked foreign to me; they now play a large role in helping me understand my character and shape my future. My top five strengths are: achiever, learner, communication, significance, context.

Understanding your top five strengths is certainly not a magical switch to immediate self-discovery and revelation. Rather, it helped me use my strengths to direct me where my passion and interests lie.

Using my learner and context strengths, I began to do research and found that people using their strengths in the workplace were more likely to be engaged than those who weren’t. To me, engagement meant passion, interest, and involvement, which also meant a sense of purpose and direction. My context strength gave me the desire to dive head first into various majors, organizations, and careers, and I used my learner strength to understand each one’s culture and environment. With achiever as my top strength, I recognized my love of being preoccupied, constantly checking off tasks, goals, accomplishments, and daily to-do lists. I began to be more proactive about purposely incorporating my strengths and found that the amount of opportunities available at Tech were at my fingertips.

I began to dissect and uncover my myriad interests, majoring in international relations, then biology, then neuroscience, then multimedia journalism, and so on (you get the point). When I pursued pre-dental, I traveled with Volunteers Around the World to the Dominican Republic where I applied my learner, communicaton, and context strengths to teach patients vital dental hygiene practices and understand the culture to communicate. When I tested multimedia journalism, I became a part of VTTV and WUVT Radio, using my communication and significance strengths to research and vocalize important information to a variety of audiences.

Through the deeper understanding of my strengths (and a TON of trial and error), I was able to form confidence in my drive. My strengths have informed my journey and my journey formed my strengths. What all of my experiences have in common is significance: I want to contribute to people’s lives in ways that matter and inspire others to do the same.

Currently, I am a senior at Virginia Tech with a double major in political science in legal studies and criminology. I am a peer mentor for Thrive, a student intern for the Office for Learning Partnerships, and a service leader for Campus Kitchen with VT Engage. This year, I plan to apply to become a certified Strengths Consultant as I hope to embrace and motivate future Hokies to get engaged through the empowerment and application of their strengths as I have with my own journey.

What do I want you to learn from my story?

Uncertainty is a guarantee in life. I worried about planning out the details to secure a happy future. However, anxiously worrying about the uncertainty of the future is pointless as it is out of our hands, and will often limit us from present opportunities. Through inner reflection, active engagement, and application of personal strengths, I was able to gain confidence and a stronger foundation in myself to feel excited about the uncertainty of the future.