“Defining Me” is the Personal Branding Track at the upcoming National Keystone Conference

By Reina M.
Steering Committee Member
Boys & Girls Club of Benton County, Arkansas

Being a teenager is probably the hardest time in life; it is the time when we start to grow up and face many challenges that we were sheltered from for many years. New fears start to develop, along with a new profile – a profile that is built from expression, foundation, future readiness, influences and reactions. Expression, also known as the youth’s voice, is probably the most important in a youth’s portfolio because it’s the way we voice out what we want to say. Many times adults demean our voice because they think that we don’t have the knowledge or the experience to speak out our opinions.

Where we come from are the roots to our foundation. Roots that we have no control over, but most of the time they can identify who we are and sometimes even determine who we become in life. Many times our past, family hardships, growing up at a young age, etc. can create a fear to break away from the foundation and cause us to not put forth effort to strive for change. Our foundation can lead us to fear for future readiness. The future is a mystery waiting to be solved, but future readiness is a haunting ghost that follows teens around. I know that from my experience, future readiness has always haunted me. I come from a family that has demeaned the importance of education which has caused a haunting fear for my future. Having no one in my family go to college affected me because at first I didn’t have anyone to turn to for advice with college, which created the pressure to further my education and the fear of not making the correct decisions.

The way we act is often influenced by social media, music and most importantly, by the people we surround ourselves with. We may surrounded ourselves with negative pop culture, especially through media which leads to us gradually accepting the negative standards that are set for us. This can easily eliminate our positive influences and affect our thoughts and reactions. The majority of us react to these influences and pressures by trying to cope with our negative surroundings. How can the National Keystone Conference help with our reactions and coping?

It is time to take the magic we have in ourselves and create a new definition for ourselves! At the 2015 National Keystone Conference, we will offer a “Defining Me” track. The purpose of this track is to allow you to understand you are not the only one facing these problems and there are positive ways to solve them. These sessions will assist you in defining who you are by helping you realize that there is a better future and you can do anything you want. They will help you refine the thin ice that seems like it will break. There will be 17 sessions that focus around expression, foundation, future readiness, influences, and reactions Choose the one that you are struggling with the most and learn how to overcome it. It is time to put out any old, negative definition of ourselves and let the inner magic we have create a new, positive definition.

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The Defining Me sessions occur Friday, April 17, from 10:30-11:30 a.m.