Round green shapes of varying sizes glow against the black background. The text reads, "Immersive."

Immersive #24: Self-Affirmations

A three panel comic drawn in a pink color scheme. The first panel contains two hands with one holding a pencil. The text reads, "I am worthy." The second panel contains the smiling face of a person with long hair. The text reads, "I am valid." The third panel depicts a close up of a woman's eyes. The text reads, "I am loved."

In a world that constantly demands our attention, it’s easy to invest all of our time and energy in things that give us superficial fulfillment. It’s through this economy of attention that we’re made to carry out choices that are detrimental to our health, both physically and/or mentally, and wear down our ability to make logical decisions. As a result, it’s important to stop lingering on things that are out of our control and focus on what we can control: our relationship with ourselves. We are the best investment that we can ever make throughout our entire life, and when you take care of yourself, you take care of everyone else around you by proxy. So just remember. You are worthy. You are valid. And, you certainly are loved.

Round green shapes of varying sizes glow against the black background. The text reads, "Immersive."

Immersive #23: Career Trajectory

A violet three panel comic. The first panel depicts an astronaut with the text "what do you want to be when you grow up?" The second panel is a silhouette of a girl looking through a telescope, and the text reads "what are you planning on majoring in." The third panel depicts a girl looking uncertain with text that reads "what are you going to do after graduation."

I admire the confidence in our younger selves to boldly declare a fantastical career path and follow through with it until one day it all sinks in and your vision for the future turns into uncertainty. What causes this shift in the way we imagine our future self? As we grow older, we have the opportunity to encounter new experiences and perspectives that shape how we navigate the world, which ultimately changes our values in life (even if it doesn’t seem clear to us in the moment) and how we see ourselves pursuing them through a career. Right now, I’d imagine many of us are in that uncertain state, whether that be in high school as someone thinking about college majors or in a late-stage career as someone having a mid-life crisis. We’re thinking about where the past has led us, a time where it seemed like we had everything put together, and how the future now looks so scary and out of our control in comparison with all these external expectations to have all the answers. But, it’s not. You’re the dreamer of your own life, and whatever you decide to do in the future will be absolutely fantastic.

Round green shapes of varying sizes glow against the black background. The text reads, "Immersive."

Immersive #22: Behavioral Interviews

The first panel depicts a hand holding pieces of paper that read "tell me about yourself." The second panel depicts a female reaching out to a person that is moving away from her. The text reads, "Describe a time when you made a difficult decision." The third paragraph depicts a notebook page that reads "why do you want to work for us?" The entire comic is drawn in varying shades of purple.

Whether or not you’re currently on the job or internship search, these questions will most likely linger within your mind in an uncomfortable way, and most likely you’ll also have answers to these questions, carefully crafted from the experiences you’ve had throughout your life. As any professional will say, come prepared to an interview and you’re sure to present your best self to an interviewer. Perhaps you’ll even  land an offer if you’re lucky. But, these questions barely scratch the surface of who we are as an individual—a living breathing human being. It’s hard to condense your entire life into a 3 minute pitch without removing the aspects of yourself that make you truly unique. After all, there is beauty and power in all facets of your being and to present one aspect over another creates a different persona of yourself for others to imagine and interact with. All of this isn’t to say that we’re all hiding our true selves and being deceptive when we do that because these interviewers are often strangers who haven’t yet earned access into our authentic self. But, this negotiation and presentation of our identity in semi-public spaces is worth considering, even if it’s for something as simple as a check-list interview.

Round green shapes of varying sizes glow against the black background. The text reads, "Immersive."

Immersive #21: Acceptance Post

Panel One: A girl looks surprised as the text around her reads "Congratulations you're in!!!!!" Panel Two: On top of drawings of envelopes and a web browser, the text reads "I'm excited to announce that..." Panel Three: A girl opens her arms in welcome greeting. The text reads "We're so glad you're finally here!"

It’s acceptance season! The high school seniors are hearing back from colleges with offers of admissions, my LinkedIn feed is filled with proud announcement posts about job offers and internship opportunities, and all around there’s an excitement to follow a new path and find a place of belonging. Amidst all of the hardship and frayed patience that placed people under stress, these words of acceptance come as a relief to our worries with the promise that everything will be spectacular moving forward. However, not all people are as fortunate to receive such offers, and not all will be well after an offer is received. It’s easy to get excited about these new prospects for yourself or for others, but like always in life, there will be another hurdle to jump over after this one. So, let’s celebrate these acceptances like they’re life-changing news and then take them with a grain of salt the following day. It’ll be the new normal until the next acceptance season after all.

Round green shapes of varying sizes glow against the black background. The text reads, "Immersive."

Immersive #20: Anonymous Reminders

A green three-panel comic. On top, a bored cat looks away from a sign that reads "enjoy ur life." Below, an outline of a human is labeled, "free hugs." At the bottom, a plant grows out of a toilet bowl. To the right, the text reads, "#Peecycling."

It’s always a joy to walk around a building and look at all the little drawings and posters scattered around. Often times, the little notes that I find around campus are positive acts of kindness that remind me to take a step back and take a breath once in a while, although the hashtag causes me to take a double take in a different way. Either way, there’s something special about the anonymity of the sender, knowing that they took the time to leave the note for everyone else to see. And, the fact that the message resonates deep within you when you stop and take a look indicates a deeper understanding about a shared human condition. While this post may not be anonymous, I hope you all take care regardless, and I’m sending good energy your way!

Immersive #19: Quotations out of Context

Ah yes, the famous quotes of the literature: the ones that we hear spoken over and over again until one day we stumble across the wording in it’s original form and realize that our initial assumptions have all been a lie. What do we do with this newfound knowledge? Well, probably not very much unless you want to forever go against the flow that is the out-of-context societal understanding that has been developed around the phrase in question. As a result, I want to ask you all this question: when do we let a phrase be taken out of context and let it exist in the singular? Does it even matter to the masses who have never read the original work in the grand scheme of things? Let’s discuss these ever-so-crucial prompts with the high school English classes of the past, found only within our deepest memories.