“I always had a sense of guilt when I was younger. Going into college, it was always ingrained in me to put school first, reach for my accomplishments, have this career afterwards. I felt like I was always on this trajectory to reach a certain point, and when I did take a break, had fun or did something to enjoy myself, there was always this sense of guilt where I was telling myself, “should I really be doing this? Can I even afford to do this” and thinking back to my family about how much they sacrificed. “Am I allowed to have fun while my parents are working 10 hours a day to let me go to school?” Even then, it really magnified whenever I failed, didn’t reach a goal, or get a grade that I wanted. Everything would just hit me really hard where, not only was I feeling bad about not reaching my goal, but I felt bad about letting my family down. If I could go back and talk to that person, I would tell them that with all that time I used to build myself up as a person, to also build those relationships that are gonna last me a lifetime and really invest in those relationships that will come back to support me when I’m struggling or going through a rough time in life, and then also be able to put myself in a different environment and challenge myself in new ways and open myself up into different perspectives. I feel like that time was really invaluable to really take off that guilt and be willing to explore myself and my identity. Having that time to myself is what has carried on throughout any phase of life I’ve been on, any obstacle I’ve faced, moving from that point, once I’ve had that time to grow myself it’s been a lot easier and I’ve picked up resources or little mental tools for how to handle any issues later on. Just don’t feel guilty, just have fun, stop being so hard on yourself all the time.”

– Vivian Nguyen, UF Alum | Just got her dream position as a pharmacy resident at John Hopkins Hospital!