Resilience Story: Meet Cierra

1. Name: Cierra

2. Hometown: Torrington, CT

3. Current town: Torrington, CT

4. Favorite song? Alive by Sia

5. Favorite book? Oof…super hard to pick but I’d have to say any of the Twilight books. I could re-read those a million times and still fall in love with each one everytime.

6. Favorite recipe? Equally as difficult to choose, but I’d have to say my single serve cinnamon roll recipe on my IG ;)

7. What does resilience mean to you? To me, resilience means forming a new version of yourself through change. We all experience change – whether drastic or small, positive or negative, defying or enlightening – and we’re always expected to just snap back to normal after the process of change is over. However, I believe quite the opposite – I believe change is intended for us to let our resilience shine and show that we can learn from the things that happen to us – whether intentional or not. We are human and we are meant to grow.

8. Describe a time when you were so happy you felt like singing out loud: Anytime TJMaxx brings in new inventory. It sounds super cheesy, but I absolutely love a good retail therapy trip, and it’s so exciting scoring lots of little goodies that not only express your personality, but also make you genuinely happy to see them.

9. Share a story about something you regret or the hardest thing you've even had to go through:

The hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through in my 22 years of life was watching my mom pass away and knowing there was nothing I could do to change it. At 20 years old, I was going through a very pivotal stage in my life – graduating college a year early, perusing a career I’d been working towards, and starting a new chapter of life in the “adult world”- so it was really hard for me to realize that my mom wouldn’t be there for any of those moments. At the time, all I could think about were the things she would miss when really I should have been thinking about all of the life I was able to experience with her while she was here on this earth.  

10. What do you do to get through the hard times? Reflection. I think as a society, we tend to associate feeling a certain way for too long to be a bad thing. We tend to put a negative perspective on how we feel – especially when it isn’t happiness 24/7 – and I hate that. I think that it is so important to reflect on the hard times and embrace how you feel during them because, one day, you won’t be in that time and you’ll be so grateful you took the time to feel how you felt. Growth comes from everything we do and it’s so important to embrace that.

11. What is one thing you can't live without?

Either chocolate chip cookies or my dad. Both are necessary!

12. Describe what you are going through now in one word, and then explain: 

Growth. I don’t know how to describe this season other than to say that I’m growing. My entire life, I’ve felt the need to control and plan everything out that I never realized how much stress I was placing on myself. I am just recently figuring out that life doesn’t always have to be so planned out – there is a time and a place for everything, and everything happens for a reason. I look back at how I was growing up and I’m glad I did what I did to get myself to this point, but now it is time for me to breathe and enjoy every moment in life. Life is short, so it’s important to experience everything you can and grow from those experiences.

13. What is the one thing that you are most proud of? I am most proud of my mindset. It can be easy to let a tough experience reign negativity on your life, but I am proud of myself for overcoming that negativity and allowing my mindset to encourage growth.

14. If you were to offer one piece of advice to other women, what would it be? The strongest, most beautiful thing you can do as a woman is lean into yourself; embrace yourself for all that you are, cultivate your passion in all that you do, do the things that make you feel alive. Whether in the process of re-learning yourself or growing from an older version of yourself, always embrace you and never let anyone else define your worth.

15. If you got to be Oprah for a day and give everyone one product, what would you choose? I would give everyone the comfiest walking shoes they’ve ever owned. Movement is such a gift that we often take for granted, and sometimes a simple walk outside helps change your entire mindset.