Breaking Barriers

Breaking Barriers By: Emily Carson (School Counseling Student)

Sitting in the graduate assistant office a few weeks into the semester, I was asked to think of a theme for our newsletter - the white board seemed like a perfect place to brainstorm. Most of my suggestions revolved around using “CHS” as an acronym –I got a good list going after just 10 minutes and figured my job was done. Really, it was just the beginning. As one of my ideas, “Challenging Human Stereotypes,” was transformed into this semester’s theme, “Breaking Barriers,” I realized I took the easy way out. That list I came up with was nothing more than stringing some words together - if it sounded good, I wrote it down. It is clear I must continue to work on breaking my own barriers, one of them being is approaching situations too strongly. I wrote the first ideas that came to mind without absorbing what each acronym would mean for the department, the university, and its students. Self-reflection is crucial to uncovering my strengths as well as growing edges. In the future, I want to take time to think about many options before jumping to a solution. In wake of this semester’s theme, I challenge others to ask themselves “What are your personal barriers?” “How can you move past them to better yourself?” Take that risk, choose the road less traveled, and find ways to look those barriers in the eye and say “HA!” I promise I will do the same.