The Grote family is a family of successful, driven, determined women; women who don't back down from a challenge, who don't give up and don't give in. They were also so, for lack of a better word, normal. It seems to me like women who have the power and prestige that they do would be more detached from us, and yet they were not that way at all. They stayed after their panel to talk to us and even gave us business cards so that we could contact them. They treated us like we were equals, like we were business women on the same level as them. This was just amazing to me, yet perhaps we are closer to them than I want to think. I mean, we are in college now, and the education we receive here is going to shape our careers, our lives; and this point that used to seem so far away is now only four years off. This, my not so distant future, is much closer at hand than I ever realized before this class. We are not just taking a class; we are learning skills to serve us as adults in our grown-up lives. This is such a scary prospect for someone who still feels like a child, yet now I feel more ready to take on my future than I ever have.
This class has shown me what empowered and driven women can do. They have blazed the trail before me and opened up more doors and opportunities than women have ever had before. I now believe that if they can do it, then so can I. I have the determination and I have the will to succeed. I have the courage to stand up for what I believe in and I have the courage to follow my dreams even if they seem hard to accomplish. My eyes have been opened to issues that I will face in my adult life as a woman and now I know how to handle them; and for the issues that cannot be handled so easily, well, at least I know that almost every other professional woman is in the same boat as I am. I also know that there is a network of women out there to support and help me along my journey. How blessed I am to have been able to take this class, and what an amazing opportunity it has been.
