“To prevail, you must
first listen."
At orientation,
all incoming freshmen here at Southern were handed the common read book called My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor. Although
I am not fond of personal memoirs, I think a lot of lessons can be taken away
from this book. Facing hardships from the beginning of her life, Sonia
Sotomayor establishes such an honorable work ethic and attitude towards the
negative things in her life, and with these, accomplishes her dream.
From an
early age, Sonia has faced countless challenges whether it be being diagnosed
with diabetes at an early age or her father passing away. A common theme
throughout her battles is her ability to face adversity and come out stronger
in the end. I think this is a valuable lesson for every individual, especially
those entering college because life will not always be easy and the way in
which you deal with your setbacks is crucial in determining your success. She also
displays such a passion for family and values the bonds she has with each
member of it. Even though her and her mom did not have the strongest bond at first,
they continuously worked at improving it and eventually got closer than ever
before. I also think this is an important value to hold through our journey of
college in that we will be going through change not seeing our families every
day, but to always keep in mind that they are the ones who will support us and
love us unconditionally.
First-year
college students may also take away lessons mentioned by Sotomayor such as not
being afraid to seek out mentors in college or just life in general. I think
this is an important concept to retain early in the college experience in that
there are people everywhere willing to help us and if they are used the right
way, will save us added unnecessary stress. We are already lucky enough to be
provided with a peer mentor and advisor and these should be people we confide
in and feel comfortable with to help us with any troubles we are faced with. She
also brings up the fact that we learn essential lessons only through
experience. JK Rowling would definitely agree with Sonia in that in her
commencement speech we read last week, she offered that she learned so much
about herself and her purpose, only through failure. She says she could not
have learned these things any other way and this is what Sotomayor is trying to
get across. As first-year college students, we should not be afraid to take
risks and fail because there are only positive and valuable lessons to come out
of these things.
Furthermore,
this book was a strong common read in that it shows that we shouldn’t be afraid
to talk about our failures and challenges in our lives. Sonia hid from her
diabetes for such a long time and it wasn’t until she collapsed that everyone
found out. We are not the only ones struggling, everyone has a story, and
holding it all inside will only destroy you. From this, she also mentions the
fact that we should take support given to us by those who are similar to us,
but not to hide within this. Broadening the types of people we associate ourselves
with can help us to learn about different cultures and different ways of life
and just give an overall better understanding of the world. I think this is so
easy to do here at Southern since we are part of such a diverse community and a
very different student body than what I am used to.
Sonia
Sotomayor can be seen as a hero to most with her passion and perseverance
through her life. She can teach freshmen such as ourselves to always seek
improvement on our weaknesses and to never give up. Her optimistic attitude is
one I envy and her dedication to herself is absolutely remarkable. She is such
an emotionally strong individual and a great role model. We can learn from
Sonia to never take anything for granted, keep dedicating ourselves to our
dreams, and with hard work, anything is possible.
How can we use role
models to better ourselves? What hardships have you personally overcome &
have they pushed you closer to your dreams?
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