Kayla Cindric

I am a recent graduate pursuing an education in Chemistry. After high school, I will be serving an eighteen-month, full time, mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will be putting my education and other activities on hold to travel around the world to share my beliefs that I have a strong testimony of. After I return, I will earn my undergraduate and press forward to minor in Mandarin Chinese and earn a master’s degree. Over the last four years of attending the Dayton Regional STEM School, I have grown significantly in my ability to be flexible and taking risks that would be beneficial to help me succeed in the future.

 

During my freshman year of high school, it became apparent that I needed academic help and needed accommodations at school and home. I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. I had a very difficult time being flexible. I could not convince myself to do anything that required stepping out of being comfortable. I was restricting myself and my potential to do anything. Everything had to be done in order the way I wrote it and I would get distressed when change occurred. I couldn’t take chances. I could not go anywhere until everything was finished. It extended to more overwhelming problems that I could not pull myself out of. I started receiving the accommodations, but I still became inflexible. It took my eighteen years to realize that I was not growing mentally and emotionally because I would purposely get myself stuck doing the same activities because I did not like change. It wasn’t until recently when an opportunity to grow presented itself.

 

Miami University coupled with Confucius Institution to create a program that allowed students who were learning Chinese to attend classes in Dalian and experience the Chinese culture. At first, I was not going to go. For months, my anxiety spiked up every time I thought about leaving for 15 days and travel across the world. Traveling to another country was a huge leap for someone who could not even cope with someone changing the tables around in the classroom and getting new assigned seats, nether the less, coping with a whole new culture, people, language, and food. I ate the same thing every day because I could not change. I was truly stuck. Several people were worried that I would never change, and how can succeed if you don’t change to grow and learn? But I convinced myself to go because if I ever wanted to learn to adapt to new surroundings, like college or new job environments, I have to take risks. I was a huge anxious mess by the time I got to the airport. This curtailment of being flexible was a struggle that I faced all of high school, and although it became less apparent and got better over the years, I still was having problems.

 

While I was in China, I was able to adapt after a few days of being engulfed by the change. But I was able to accept the change. Traveling to China was an amazing opportunity. I was able to get out of my comfort zone so I could go. I was always raised on a quote which was, “There is no comfort in the growth zone, and there is no growth in the comfort zone.” I understand that saying now. I never grew the way I needed to because I did not want to change.  I learned how to adapt to cultural changes and how to be flexible. It was uncomfortable at first with experiencing new food and living arrangements, but I know that it made me smarter and more secure. Sometimes, you need to put yourself in an uncomfortable position to learn and grow.

 

As any high school goal would be, I learned flexibility in school. Several different projects taught me to be flexible as problems would arise such as a group member did not do their assigned part of the project and we had to work around it and be flexible to get the assignment finished. I had to learn to be flexible in managing my time so that I can fit everything in a 24-hour day. School projects taught me to sacrifice some things even if it was on my schedule which involved being flexible because I constantly had to change things around that I felt were already set-in-stone and needed done at the time I said they would be done.

 

 Learning to be flexible and accept change is what will really help me become the person I want to and be successful in the future. Before, I could never travel, never change my routine, and would get stressed out when something went wrong or not the way I planned. High school has taught me how I can overcome these challenges and be flexible because now, I can travel, change, and adapt to change.