Emotional Wellness: Tara Walker Gross, Zeta Tau By Samantha Rill, Delta Delta
T H E AN C H OR
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Have a positive attitude, high self-esteem, a strong sense of self, and the ability to recognize and share a wide range of feelings with others in a constructive way.
F AL L 2015
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motional wellness is often the “forget-me-not” of the Wellness Wheel. People are so used to ignoring their emotions and being told to “walk it off,” that many have forgotten how to recognize their emotions and themselves under the masks they create. Writer, speaker, and Alpha Sigma Tau alumna Tara Walker Gross, Zeta Tau, is no stranger to this. She had a mask of her own, finely tuned after years of ignoring the person she truly was: a self-described “geek.” “I was never open about my interests and what I reading,” Tara says, recalling how she hid her science fiction books in high school and college, enjoying them in secret. “But then, I realized I was unhappy,” she continues. “I was unhappy because I was afraid to accept who I was.” That realization compelled Tara to bare her “nerdy soul” and conquer those fears that once held her back. When she did this, she began to see she was not the only one who had struggled with these feelings. “I put myself out there,” she recalls. “Then I realized there are a lot of people who were, and still are, in the same boat … especially women.”