By Ariana Magafas
The self discovery journey can be one of the most exhilarating yet challenging trips in life. Learning more about oneself and how to work on one’s inner persona are extremely valuable and vital stages of development. The moments and the people in someone’s life can shape their character and influence them to be who they are today.
And that’s exactly what Jada Griffin believes in. The 20-year-old SLU junior from Omaha, Nebraska remembers her childhood being filled with love and warmth.
“I had a good childhood growing up,” Griffin says. “The relationship I had with my parents was great and my twin sister and I were super close. She’s my person.”
Griffin and her sister are twins down to a T. Not only do they do everything together, but the only difference between their names is one letter at the end.
Jade Griffin recalls a twin connection that she and Griffin share together. “If she feels pain, I’ll feel it too. One time she got a shot and I was in another room and I felt an itch on my arm and texted her, ‘did you get a shot or something?’”
Griffin says with confidence that her family and friends are the people who have impacted her to be the woman she is today. Although, there is a moment that changed Griffin’s life forever.
When Griffin turned 15, her mother got diagnosed with cancer and the summer before junior year, her mother passed away. Griffin’s life shifted and the loss turned her and her family’s world upside down. She describes how her mother was a ray of light and the second someone would meet her, she would treat them like they were her best friend.
“Something like that doesn’t just affect you, but it also affects everyone in your family. It affected the relationships I had with them and my friends,” Griffin says. “Through that experience, though, I became much more aware of how important life is and how short it is. I found out by letting your emotions out, it allows you to move through life and heal.”
Not only did she learn life lessons that will be a part of her forever, but Griffin also found a passion for social science and human behavior, which influenced her double communication and psychology major today at SLU.
Griffin takes pride in how far she has come as a person. “Accomplishments and things that you do will come and go,” she says. “As a person, learning about yourself and working on yourself says more to me in a sense of what I’m proud of than specifically tying it to something.”
Her best friend from childhood, Alice Silberling, describes Griffin as a selfless and understanding person. Silberling says how Griffin is the most genuine person one will ever meet and when people are hurting, she’ll feel it too.
As for goals for the future, Griffin says that she doesn’t like to tie herself down. She would rather have emotions and experiences that she wants to feel and cultivate for herself. It is obvious that Griffin is passionate about her biggest goal, which is to be the most authentic version of herself.
“At the end of the day, my life motto comes first, which is ‘in everything that I do, lead with love.’”
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