“It was so simple but it’s crazy how something so simple can change something else”

Isabelle is a kind, caring, and outgoing person. She moved to Hyrum from California in May 2021. She has come a long way from how she was in California, and has shared a bit of her transformation story.

“When I was in like 5th grade I would like not say hi to anyone. There was this one girl who was in our stake and she tried to say hi to me and I did not say hi to her. I saw her and I was like ‘mmmmm, no’. Yeah, I was just so shy and my mom told me, ‘you’re going to have to say hi to one person each day, one new person each day’ and I was like I did not want to do that at all.”

Do you think your mom’s challenge of saying hi helped?

“I think it did. It kinda helped me to start recognizing that it’s okay for me to know people other than just my friends and to talk to people other than just my friends. Because that was very much my mindset for a while and even through middle school it kinda was. But I think my mom saying that it’s okay to say hi to people really helped me especially as I moved here to be like oh yeah I can say hi to them and I know them, because it’s still embarrassing for me to say hi to people sometimes.”

“I would go to youth activities after COVID and not just being with my family all the time was the first time I really appreciated going out with friends and spending time with people outside doing stuff and I would like go to mutual and I would like actually like feel confident.

“And I’d be like oh yeah I can go out and I can do all this stuff and I’m really excited to go out and socialize. I think that it kinda helped with just like having less anxiety of like oh I look so awkward, oh I look so cringy.”

“I definitely think supporting people and complimenting people is a really big factor in so many peoples days even if we don’t recognize that and I know it was a really big factor in mine.”

“I think that like lifting each other up rather than tearing each other down is such an important thing. I’m definitely not perfect at being kind all the time, I’m definitely human in that aspect. Being there for each other and lifting each other up and just being friendly to people helped me a lot when I was going from being super shy to more outgoing.”

After explaining how she met some of her best friends here in Utah, she explained, “I think definitely I am more comfortable around people here. I don’t know how to explain that but I think I’m more comfortable being around them just because they’re more authentic here if that makes sense.

“They just go out and have a good time and that’s a really big thing for you being comfortable enough to be outgoing, and to make new friends if they’re more comfortable with themselves.”

“And I think that if everyone realized that, that they just- that we should try and help each other be more comfortable with ourselves and to be more comfortable being with ourselves. I think that’s a big thing too for helping us work together and be friends with each other. Confidence has a lot to do with it.”

What an important lesson Isabelle learned through her experiences. The simple act of saying hi and being more friendly to everyone really changed it all for her.