Women's Event- Developing Strong Women Fair

                Tonight, I attended the Developing Strong Women Fair, and event co-hosted by Alpha Delta Pi and Kappa Alpha Theta. The main topic of discussion was empowerment- what it means to be empowered, and how we can empower not only ourselves, but others as well. Meredith Osborn, who is a counselor here at SLU, began the event by giving a talk. In it, she asked us to give her our own definition of what it means to be an empowered woman. This sounds simple enough, but I honestly didn’t know what a good definition would be. Eventually, we were given one something like this- An empowered woman is one who chooses to set aside stereotypes and be her best authentic self. She knows it’s okay to ask for what she wants, and she also feels deserving of all that life has to offer her. She spends her life doing the right things, rather than simply trying to do more things. Lastly, she empowers herself by empowering others.

                Personally, I really can’t think of any better way to define what it means to be an empowered woman. My favorite part of her talk, though, was the fact that she mentioned the importance of doing things that make us happy and give us fulfillment. She noted that people often spend so much time trying to please those around them that they forget to take care of themselves. She gave us an example of this from her own personal experience: While training to run a half marathon, something she wanted to do for herself, she couldn’t help but feel incredibly guilty, due to the fact that her training on top of her already busy work schedule was taking her away from her family. She felt very conflicted-- she wanted to be a good wife and mother, but at the same time, she knew that running the half marathon was something she had to do for her own fulfillment. She notes that while it is important to make those around us happy in order to maintain our relationships and friendships, we must take our own feelings and needs into account as well.

                Overall, I thought that her talk was very powerful and motivating. I was disappointed that I did not have the time to visit the other booths afterwards, but I’m glad that I was able to attend most of the event!