Out Of My Comfort Zone

“ Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere

[we] don’t belong.” — Mandy Hale.

In today’s world, there are so many big things that need to change, so when I was

presented with the “duty” to help influence change, I was terrified! But, I knew that being stuck

in the same place would be more painful, than trying to change. And, I learned how to influence

change through literature, which impacted my personal growth by showing me the difference I

could make by having courage and inspiring others.

I never thought I — the so-called shy girl — could ever influence change, but I can and I

have. People all over social media uplift and encourage others to influence change, including

through Instagram posts. Whether it’s someone putting something on their Instagram story or by

me finding an educational post on my “explore” page. I’ve learned so many lessons: from how to

gain confidence to quick hacks on how to fix your hair! But, most importantly, I learned how to

gain courage. I've learned that gaining courage isn’t easy and you have to take the steps to get

there. Like, doing things that make me uncomfortable and letting go of my fear.

Quotesbychristie’s account was very influential in my personal growth. One post stated: “If

you’re not sure how to respond, listen. If you’re not sure what to read, research. If you’re not

sure what to do, donate. ‘Not Sure’ becomes ‘not my problem.’ It’s not enough to be ‘not sure’

when racism is still taking lives.” This quote pushed me because it pointed at me and told me to

do something, when I was doing nothing. At this point in time, many things were happening and
I didn’t know what to do. And, this quote pushed me to start influencing change. I started to post

educational posts about certain events, like the issues that were happening in Yemen. “Yemen —

the world’s worst humanitarian crisis — is being ravaged by ongoing war and COVID-19

outbreaks, swipe to learn how you can help.” And, the problems with our justice system, to help

others become more educated, and I started uncomfortable conversations that nobody wanted to

have at home. Learning how to gain courage and influence change has helped me with my

personal growth!

Another way that I learned how to influence change is by inspiring others. I’ve found that

inspiring others takes more than just telling someone a piece of information; you have to make

an emotional connection with them. You have to make them feel something and apply the

situation to them. Unfortunately, not all people care about other people’s problems, so in order

for them to get inspired to make change you have to apply the situation to them and make them

feel an emotional connection. Another piece that made me understand this and inspired me to

influence change was a Frontline film from the 1960’s called A Class Divided from my AP

Psychology class! In this film, an experiment was conducted to make the students understand

what being discriminated against felt like. The teacher conducted the experiment and made the

student’s eye color the independent variable, and the dependent variable the student’s behavior

and performance. On day one, she made the students with blue eyes superior and analyzed all of

the student’s behavior. She noticed that the students with brown eyes behavior got worse

throughout the day -- and so did their performance in class. But, the students with blue eyes did

better in class and they were being mean to the students with brown eyes. On day two, the

teacher switched their roles, so the blue eyed students could experience what the brown eyed
students experienced. The teacher connected their experiences with being discriminated against

because of their eye color to being discriminated against due to your skin color. “Teacher: Should

the color of some other person’s eyes have anything to do with how you treat them? Class: No!

Teacher: Alright, then should the color of their skin should have anything to do with how they

treat them? Class: No!” Since, the teacher applied the situation to them and made an emotional

connection to the students, it inspired the children to stop treating people with other skin colors

differently. From this film, I learned that I could influence change and inspire others through

video! This film showed me a different way of inspiring people to change. And, I’ve used this

method by making PSAs in my independent study class about treating women fairly. We did that

by comparing the doll with the girl in the PSA and stating that women are just dolls for you to

play with. I also did this by posting different types of awareness posts on Instagram on the

importance of social distancing and how the coronavirus has permanently affected people. From

losing their family member, to losing their job and getting kicked out of their apartment because

they couldn’t pay rent. Also, the importance of understanding and expecting everyone, no matter

their race, gender or sexuality. This film also showed me that if we started learning about these

topics at a young age, it can help us later on in life. Inspiring others takes making an emotional

connection with the viewer and with the use of video I’ve accomplished that goal.

The past few months have taught me more than I ever thought I could learn. And, the

literature I’ve taken in has been in many different forms, but because of that I’ve been able to

understand it better. I still have much more to learn, but literature will help me along the way.