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Her Campus is one of my absolute favorite things on the planet. It's a publication that has helped me grow as a writer and editor. It's an organization that has helped me develop my leadership skills. It's a brand that promotes just good old girl power. I absolutely love Her Campus.

Last week my relationship with Her Campus developed even further, so I decided that for the blog this week, I'm going to look at the evolution of my relationship with Her Campus.

In a previous post, I reflected on my experiences as a contributor who first joined Her Campus Iowa and my first semester as Campus Correspondent: Editor-in-Chief of Her Campus Iowa. I wrote that post in February, which was a little into my second semester in this position. I'm going to pick up my story where that post left off...

When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.

The wall above my desk in my room at school this year.

Last year, when I was a freshman in college, I was very, very homesick. I spent the first couple of weeks just sad and unmotivated. I missed home and my family and my friends.

Then one day, my aunt sent me a quote: “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” Theodore Roosevelt said that. I kept reading it over and over again. I kept remembering it in the couple days that followed.

Then it hit me: I should make a quote wall. I should gather quotes that inspire me and motivate me and hang them up in my dorm room.

So I did it. And I felt better. And that Theodore Roosevelt quote was right in the middle. Not only was I inspired every time I looked at them and read them, but they just made the room so much more cheerful. They turned the blank white wall above my desk into something colorful and bright and happy.