I believe it's now time to sit down and write my last blog post for the my last week working at Empowered Inc. I'm Jamia, and I know I have the attitude of a lion as I'm a Leo at heart. On my birthday (7/24/2002) and even for a lasting time after, people threw birthday wishes my way, and I was able to connect with many people whom I've not connected with for a while. Ignoring the small details that I had to remind even my closest friends that it was my birthday, to which I've lost no pride in doing so, I was very happy. I am very happy about it all. Though I've had to face the dread of presenting, I was very happy. Praises, after accomplishments, long after completed goals is what made up this last week working. You see, I loath presenting and it's ability to show one of my greatest weaknesses, but I love facing challenges and their ability to improve who I am. So with that dire contradiction, I faced my supervisors, the audience of my presentation, and the news cameras with the motto that I live by:
Fake it 'til you make it. / Pretend in order to become.
Via zodiac sign, I live amongst the diversity, however, I rule above whomever I come across. And yes, though I say that, I'm no top leader--and don't tell me otherwise--as I know myself, and I know I'm more vice president than president material. Nonetheless, the praises made me feel lighter anyway. With the Leo in me, praises get me feeling proud, but with a well-developed personality in me, I will never intend to be disrespectful or unappreciative. Moreover, thank you to the ones that mentioned positive things of my appearance, said positives of my oral presentation, and roared positives of me and my partner's website. Thank you.
Now, as I seem to love using the word "now" in my blogs if you've noticed, I had loved meeting and getting to know my coworkers, interesting people now closer to being friends to me; learning from my supervisors, workplace seniors who understood so much more and did so much more than a high school girl like me; gaining advice from the speakers who had come to meet us, people I'm glad I got to learn from upon a retelling of their experiences and a relaying of their current and future ideas; and understanding the wishes of our business partners, who allowed us to experience the final outcome of the websites me and my coworkers had created. Another phrase I live by:
Appreciate everything. More specifically, learn to love learning.
On that note, thank you once again, Empowered. You see, I don't think I ever got to mention it, not on TV (WLKY & WAVE 3), not during the presentations, nor in another blog post, but there was a moment in the first week where the girls and I had sat down at the meeting table all foreign to each other's presences and unused to the workplace and waking up early. Our Summerworks supervisor, Angelica, who's ever the most smiley person I've ever met, had lead us on some conversation where I've said a fact I don't often say, and that was how my family and other African American peers of mine would comment on my way of talking like it was 'proper' and 'white', and my coworkers empathized with me which was a first for me. Furthering this into the 'being minority and a woman' conversation, I have changed. That change was for the positive, as I've broadened my horizon and expanded my comfort zone whenever it came to such a conversation. Before this program, I've not fully respected the black side of me and have not considered the problems that may arrive for the woman side of me, and I guess that's still my struggling point, but I'm taking steps I guess.
As I've said and repeated my piece for people within this program, I'll give you a run down. I can now code and it may become a hobby; though Treehouse was a boring-type of struggle, I like it for being better than the other code learning programs; building a website and stepping back to look at it was exhilarating, presenting it gave me anxiety though; I'm glad I could meet the people I've met and do the things I did, they were open minded and accepting and really interesting; the end. As there's no next week "Working at Empowered" to blog, stay tuned for the website itself as long as I can edit it. Bye Bye for those just reading my "Working at Empowered" series!