Strength | Winston-Salem, NC

A group of Wake Forest Women gathered over dessert in Farrell Hall on the Reynolda Campus as part of Wake Women’s Weekend on March 1, 2019 to discuss Strength.

Overview and highlights of our Call to Conversation:

• Our examples of strength and what we learned from being outside of our comfort zones included traveling, working and living in different countries and cultures, serving as caregivers for loved ones, starting a new business, finding our place and excelling in a new work environment or professional program, completing an uncomfortable school assignment, adjusting to changing technologies, and making hard personal decisions and sharing those decisions with those we love.
• Some common characteristics of strength that we recognized in each of those situations included demonstrations of empathy, vulnerability, courage, humility, passion, resiliency, recognizing our own skills and talents and how they fit into and enhance the broader team, overcoming our own insecurities, becoming comfortable with just being, and understanding and working through our own biases.
• We observed that courageous behavior is often demonstrated when we don’t know what to do and yet we step up and figure it out as we go. And strength is shown when we rely on others for support and to work through times of discomfort and challenge.
• We discussed how living through sadness and discomfort can help us recognize and be grateful for the periods of joy and comfort.
• We discussed how in these moments outside of our comfort zones, we recognize calls to action and reflect on what we can do to make a difference in our communities, our country, and the world.