The Powerful You

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By: Janna Parke

A lot of controversial topics have been brought up in my life lately. In my women’s health class, we have been talking about abortion. All over Facebook there is are red equal signs and also pictures of the traditional marriage. Clearly people have different values, opinions, and beliefs, but does this have an effect in the workplace? After a small investigation, I learned to think about this topic in a different way. Hopefully after reading this post, you will feel encouraged and excited to go out into the world and be different!

My values and beliefs are very important to me, which could be very different from someone who I am working with now, or in the future. I think it is essential to be able to work with people who have similar viewpoints, and diverse. I looked up different articles about how values and beliefs can affect the workplace, and a majority of the websites show this to be a minimal problem.  Yes, it may be a minimal problem across the workplace, but it is always good to remind yourself that you are distinctive and unique and that many values differ from person to person.

Beliefs are potent because they drive behavior.  Your beliefs, or habits of mind, are sometimes based on ideas that support you. Because of this, keeping strong to your beliefs in the workplace, or in general, will help to make a more diverse team. I find it encouraging knowing that because of who I am and what I believe, I can bring something unique to the table in my internship. I may have ideas or thoughts that are different from someone else; therefore I will bring a new perspective.  As Coco Chanel once said, “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.”

I chose this picture to be added because there are five slices of fruit put together to make one piece of fruit. I look at this picture and see myself as one piece of the fruit, and my fellow teammates, interns, and friends to be different from me, but work together to be one!

So go out there into the world today and don't be vanilla ice cream if you are strawberry ice cream… be a colorful zebra if those are your true stripes… swim against the current if that is what you have been taught…. But most of all, be yourself, because you are the best at being you!