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By Katie Hayden
The start of a new semester brings all kinds of new and exciting things. After a year of living in a dorm, one of these new and exciting things was moving into an apartment with three roommates. Each of us brought items we had from home that we knew would be necessary throughout the year, but some have grown to be important in more ways than one.
When I graduated from high school, I received a coffee mug from a friend that said, “Beautiful Girl, You Can Do Hard Things.” I have always thought the mug is cute because of its bright colors and floral design, but I had never thought much of the quote written on it until one of my roommates mentioned it. I was sitting at the table in our apartment, drinking coffee out of my mug and complaining about homework, when one of my roommates looked at me and jokingly said, “Beautiful girl, you can do hard things.” At first, we all laughed at the trivial comment, but then this came to be a daily saying in our house. Every time one of us is caught complaining, someone reminds them of the quote on the mug. I never would have expected this to catch on like it did; however, it was from this little mug that our roomie “quote of the week” was born.
After my roommate quoted the mug, she found a dry erase marker in her room and wrote the quote in decorative handwriting across the fridge. At first, we thought she was crazy, but then it started to grow on us. Week after week this quote has been replaced by another, most of which are cheesy like that one, but also motivating to some degree. The goofy quotes on the fridge never fail to make me giggle, and they typically remind me that I am capable of more than I think, prepared for the task at hand, and confident in my abilities to succeed.
After an almost completely online COVID year, the return to in-person classes and events has rocked my world. Although the quote of the week is often more silly than serious, sometimes all it takes is reading that one simple quote on the fridge to get me through a class, a late night of studying, or an essence of self-doubt that creeps in from time to time. Sometimes all you need is a quick little reminder that you can, in fact, do hard things.
Katie Hayden is a McConnell Scholar in the class of 2024. She is studying neuroscience and political science at the University of Louisville.