6 / Five Things Friday

Took two weeks off to get into the swing of school…I’m back!

I’m in my sixth semester of college (2 more to go!) as a science and agricultural journalism major with an emphasis in strategic communication and minors in business, agricultural economics and international agriculture. This is one of the first semesters where I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of my classes and even though I’ve had less than 8 days of classes so far, I can tell I’m going to learn a lot over the next four months. I’m going to be working on campaigns for Exxon Mobil, Kerrygold, the Special Olympics of Missouri and studying food insecurity — who’s excited?! 🙂

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Five things Friday is back and I’m going to add a lil section of my favorite five things of the week:

1. Unexpected “snow day” from school on Wednesday, made this a 4 day weekend for me!
2. Snuggles with each of my 7 cats
3. Puppy kisses from Rueger and Dog
4. Playing my talent and feeling like it could be shared on national television at Miss America
5. getting pageant headshots back from Matt & Meredith Boyd!

Without further ado, here’s my five things Friday.

Takeaway of the Week: 

“Am I reaching my potential?” ≠ “How do I rise to the top?”

Reaching Your Potential – Robert Steven Kaplan

One of the classes that I am in this semester is housed in the Novak Leadership Institute, in namesake of David Novak, MU alum and former CEO of YUM! Brands (Taco Bell, KFC, all the good things in the world). We read leadership books and articles, in addition to conducting a full-blown strategic research campaign for a non-profit client, but it is really unlike any other leadership class that I’ve been in. Everything comes from a business or management resource and is applied directly to our careers — I love it! This week we talked about how to define success and how that definition changes, molds and develops over time.

Learn from: BIG Goals. One thing we’re also learning in the aforementioned course is to set BIG goals, not incremental goals. As a planner and Type-A personality, I’m pretty bad about wanting a schedule and an exact plan — in this class, we challenge that head-on and work toward a goal that’s outrageous, wild, crazy on the premise that if you don’t reach it, you’re still going to be farther along than you would be if you only set safe incremental goals. This has got me thinking BIG about my Miss America dreams and what goals I have for my year of service. We place so many limitations and barriers on ourselves and I’m ready to just dive in, failures and all, into pursuing some BIG goals.

I Wish I Knew That…you don’t have to do/want/be/participate in/believe/acknowledge/promote the same things that other people do, but that doesn’t give you a ‘free card’ to judge them for their own actions. That’s the beauty of being human — making our own choices — and you shouldn’t feel sorry/bad/negative for making the best choices for you, even if it seems like everyone else is making other decisions. Point blank: you do you, sista, and let them focus on doing them!

Miss Missouri:  So it’s been busy since the last time I’ve chatted with you all! I’ve had two mock interviews to prepare for competition, my headshot photoshoot with Matt & Meredith Boyd, drove to Arkansas to design the gown of ~dreams~ for Miss Missouri and began really hammering in on why I want to be Miss Missouri and pouring into a period of silent preparation.

I spent last weekend with my little sister in the Show-Me Princess Program for Miss Missouri. Maddie (my sister!), Clara (her sister and my adopt-a-teen princess), her parents, my mom and I all enjoyed a fun Mexican fiesta that Maddie and I helped to prepare. We watched Miss Congeniality 2 (yay, Sandra Bullock!) over brownies and ice cream, then I surprised the girls with brunch with Miss Missouri the next morning. It was such a fun weekend and I love those little girls so much! Looking forward to lots of sleepovers to come.

Resource: The people around you. I’m 1000% a product of the people that have poured into, supported, molded, developed, pushed, challenged, loved on and mentored me and sometimes it’s easy to forget about the contributions of each person when you’re rushed or busy! I just submitted my application for the Truman Scholarship (!!), one of the most prestigious public service graduate school scholarships in our country awarded to one student from every state. The process was grueling, took a lot of soul searching and would not have been possible without the support of Dr. Parshall in the Fellowships Office, my four recommenders for their sincere support and honest recommendation letters, or Maria Kalaitzandonakes, one of my special friends and former recipient of the award. It’s been such a humbling process, but really affirms that I’m headed in the right direction; food insecurity is a huge issue and I refuse to let it go unsolved.

One hundred and forty some days until Miss Missouri, y’all.

xo,

Holly