Moving out of my comfort zone is probably the hardest thing I have ever done. A part of me actually still wants to give up and go back to my usual way of staying lowkey and just watching people instead of trying to interact.
However, the good thing about past me is that she really made sure I will have no choice but to continue with what she started. Instead of just being interactive here, she also joined a lot of organizations where I wouls have no choice but to interact with others haha.
While it makes me feel tired sometimes, I think my past self made the right decision to do this. I feel happier since joining different organizations. It feels like I have a place that I belong to. It feels like I suddenly gained a lot of potential friends. Now, all that is left is for me to put myself out there too.
Thank you to my wonderful sponsors.Yesterday is finally the last step before I became an official part of our university's peer facilitators. In case you did not know, peer facilitators work hand in hand with the guidance and counseling center to make sure that the students can get the help they need when it comes to mental health. They exist to make sure that there is a safe space for students to express themselves without fear of judgement.
As a mental health advocate, the idea of being surrounded with fellow advocates is inviting. I actually wanted to be a part of them since freshman year but I always felt too scared. I always put it off saying that there is still a lot of time left in college, and that I should just enjoy doing nothing in my college life for now. Well, that really did nothing for my social life this college but at least I had a lot of sleeping time haha.
Anyway, this year, I finally decided that enough is enough and that I need to put myself out there so that I will have the opportunity to gain college friends. I mean how can I do that if I refuse to interact with others, right?
Fortunately, as soon as I though this, I saw a post that the university's Peer Facilitators is looking for more people to join them. I saved the link to the form, but I stopped filling it up when I saw that there will be an interview. I was actually afraid of what it could mean so I did not complete the form until the deadline haha.
When the day for the interview came, I wonder to myself why I was so afraid. The interview actually felt like chatting with friends and my cheeks hurt from smiling because I was laughing the whole time.
After it was done, we were told to wait for the general assembly. And I remember thinking that I mase the best decision when I decided to finally sign up.
So yesterday, I took the last step in finally becoming an official peerkada (joined words of peer and barkada/buddy). I attended the general assembly.
We met the adviser, directors, officers as well as the alumni who established Peer Facilitator in our university. It was a lot of fun seeing them interact with one another.
After the introduction to the people behind the organization, our adviser then shared the purpose of having peer facilitator in the university as well as what it means to be a peerkada.
This is a picture of one of the slides in the orientation. Tbe take away that I got from the talk is that just because we are peer facilitator does not mean that we have to be happy and strong all the time.
Mental health problems do not discriminate so anyone of us can get it. Our main goal is to ensure that everyone has a place where they can be open about their struggles. And help them get consultations from professionals should they need it.
To be a peer facilitator, we have to be conscious of our biases. As humans, it is inevitable that we have some biases but to be a peer facilitator means challenging those biases. It means extending help to people that we may not necessarily like. It means removing judgement when someone asked for help.
The example they gave actually got me thinking. They asked us, imagine someone who has been cheating on his girlfriend ask for help because he is suffering from what might be depression. Will you help him or will you think to yourself "depressed but has the time to cheat on multiple girls"?
It was actually hard to fight the bias that arose to me at that moment. But still, I understood what our adviser was telling us. To be a peer facilitator means being able to listen without judgement.
Some people listen so they can answer but for us we must listen to learn. We must listen to understand. All the biases we have must be set aside once we become a peer facilitator.
Another timely example that our adviser gave us is about politics. She said that while we cannot escape from politics, we must be willing to listen to others. Not to educate them on our beliefs because that implies that we believe ourselves higher than them, but to engage in a discourse. To discuss things and to learn from one another. While we may not necessarily reach an agreeable decision, the imoortant thing is that everyone has the chance to say their piece even if we may disagree with it.
Sounds hard, right? So let's leave this as is and go to the fun part.
My favorite part is the breakout room. Basically, the participants of the Zoom meeting were divided into smaller groups of 14 people. There were 2 officers and 12 new members.
What we did was share some things about ourselves as well as play a lot of fun games. I actually enjoyed it a lot. I won one game of typing round. We could choose our prize but sadly I was a little late for the prize I wanted so i settled for a 3-month subscription of Canva Pro which will be helpful to me since I applied in the Media and Arts Committee.
After that, we had our oath taking and the general assembly is officially done. We only waited for a few hours and we are added to the official group chat for all peer facilitators. Now, we are just busy having fun with each other. And I feel so glad that I managed to be a part of the peer facilitator.
Thank you for reading this article!
If you want to read some more articles of mine, I have monthly summaries here:
September 2021 Articles Summary
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Excellent, how good it is that you enjoy doing it yourself and helping others, good luck