At the beginning of the quarter I would have never thought I would come as far as I have. I started off by first deciding that I wanted to focus on developing and maintaining my interpersonal relationships with others. I started by first just doing my usual tasks with others. For example, going to the dining hall, I would ask someone from my staff if they wanted to come with me. I would walk to my sorority meetings with some of my sisters in my dorm. Just little things here and there would eventually add up and create a snowball effect. I was being invited to do things because people knew that I was open to hanging out. I noticed that my whole domineer started to change. I was a happier person now. I then started to notice that I was beginning to reevaluate some of the relationships I was currently in. I started hanging out with a group of guys that live in my dorm. We all had the same mutual obsession for the History Channel and soon we all started developing a friendship…I feel like I haven’t had actual friends since high school. I was so happy and I know it was illuminating from me. I could never wipe the smile off my face. I felt like I was finally living my life for me. Finally, the largest challenge I had to face was my relationship with my boyfriend of 3 years and 3 months. I was no longer happy in my relationship and I noticed that he was obstructing my path of furthering my progress with my goal. I felt like I couldn’t go out or hang out with anyone. I completely isolated myself from the world. Once I made the decision to end the relationship I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders. I was so happy given the circumstances. I noticed that I was feeling like a college student. I was able to go out and build relationships without having to answer to anyone or focus on waiting for a phone call from him. I just know that I made the best decision for me. I came home and there was one thing that my dad said to me that truly resonated with me. He said, “You have to live your life for you…Every single day.” As simple as that statement may sound I wasn’t doing that. I am living my life for me every day from now on. I am just in a much better place now.

I think that it will be difficult for me to backtrack from the way I am feeling right now. I am a social person and I lost that. I feel like I am just back to being the old me. I will continue to invite people to do the mundane things with me such as eating or grocery shopping. I think the one thing that might become difficult for me is my patience with people. I have to just breathe and make sure I have enough time to dedicate to hanging out with people. This means being proactive about my duties and studies. I also am interested to see how summer will go considering the people I am currently hanging out with don’t live near me. I am going to just continue to try to stay connected with those individuals during the summer. Also, I am working on following through with my commitments I make with people. I tend to always cancel plans with people and I am going to work on not doing so. I am just excited for what Spring quarter has to offer me so I continue to welcome new relationships and maintain the ones I have right now.

This experience has been more of a journey and an attitude change than just the application of different strategies. I think that the entire concept of EI has just helped make me more aware that I am normal and ultimately how I want to raise my children when I get older. I just have a better understanding of how to navigate my feelings and not let the little things get to me as much. I had a goal at the beginning of the quarter where I didn’t want to push myself emotionally to the point where I would just cry and I am proud to say that I didn’t! I think that it is thanks to EI that I was able to accomplish this goal. I was able to diffuse situations with my emotions before letting them get to the point where I wasn’t in control. I feel completely in control of the way I am. I have the power to decide how I feel by being able to effectively label my emotions and how to regulate them. It has been a huge life change.

I plan on living my life the EI way and teaching my children one day based on some of the ruler effect. This class has truly been life changing and I wish that everyone could go through it. I am a better, happier, and healthier person because of this class. I wonder where I would have been without this class. I am extremely grateful and I truly feel like I was meant to take this class. I loved all of it.

I hope to continue to develop my EI after this class by sharing the book with my mom and sister. I hope that when they read the EI book I will be able to create a home base that is able to understand how I currently think. I also would love to attend a TED conference and continue to read items and articles involving Emotional Intelligence. I would like to continue to build and maintain relationships in my life. I have a really good feeling about what my future has in store for me. My mom didn’t meet my father until she was 35 and she told me that I have the same mindset she had when she met my father. I have an internal calm that I have never experienced before. It is so liberating to not have anything planned and just believing that everything will okay. I know that what I am doing is right and that I need to make me a priority before I can expect anyone else to. I am just so happy right now and I plan on riding this feeling for as long as I can.