Persistence and vulnerability in Action

This semester and last have been particularly hard for me but I feel as if my life has become ten times more fulfilling and it pushes me to keep going forward. This previous fall, I started at ASU after slowly obtaining my associate's degree from Phoenix College. The workload has inscreased, along with a move, and many other life changes. I have been stuck on getting what I get and not throwing a fit. Asking professors for any kind of help has always felt like a hard thing to do. But lately, I have had to ask for help. The workload had gotten to me and I was turning in less than stellar work. I felt like a failure. I knew lots of people ask for extensions but I didn't want to lay my heart out to my professors. Last week, my lab partner and I had a hard time understanding the statistics side of our research. I had already accepted in my heart that we would get a really bad grade. She, on the other hand, immediately emailed the professor asking for an extension. I honestly thought we did not deserve the extension since we had all of spring break to work on the assignment, and we didn't. I had once reached out to her because I thought I might have Covid so I missed one lab. She emailed me back saying that if the test returned negative, she would not be able to excuse my absence and I would not be able to make up the lab. It was negative, so I lost 30 points. It was clear to me that she would not budge this time around either. To my surprise, the professor did allow us an extension and even got together with us to explain the results and to help us interpret them correctly. Vulnerability. Persistence. I have read countless books about asking others for help, heard the podcasts, preached it to everyone that needed to hear it.. yet, I didn't allow myself to be vulnerable and I had quit after one failure. I was so stuck on my box of perfection that I even thought I was not deserving of the opportunity. This week, I spoke with another professor about my less-than-stellar lab notebook. And, she gave me a second chance to improve my work! It's definitely not easy to ask for help. But I have to admit it, sometimes I do need help. And it is okay to not understand things the first time. Have a wonderful week everyone. If you want to grow, keep growing by stay vulnerable. Here's a cute picture of the wildlife I spotted during an ecology lab outing: