The 2024 Eastern Utah Women’s Conference took over the USU Eastern Jennifer Leavitt Student Center for another year. This year, the theme of the event was “Pioneering Transitions” and began on the afternoon of March 28 with activities such as yoga, macrame, self-defense, book clubs and jewelry making.
The day continued with a welcome by Deborah Lin before three separate breakout sessions were hosted. These breakout sessions covered a myriad of topics, such as a guide through medicare, eating healthy, resume writing, meal preparation and more.
The evening keynote speaker of the event was Carbon School District Superintendent Mika Salas, who turned her focus on the theme of the event: transitions. Salas stated that this means changing or moving from one position or place to another. She said that the women in attendance might be a mom, a wife, a sister, or a daughter, but they are not just one thing. Roles, while very important, are sometimes hard to keep up with.
Salas stated that this is the same with transitions, as they are not one thing and not linear. Transitioning is irregular, hard and all over the place. Salas then went over some ways that a transition may be easier, starting with practicing gratitude. She said this helps a transition by bringing a focus onto the little things. This could be done by saying, writing or texting “thank you” every day or doing nice things for other people.
“When you look for bad things, you’ll find it. But when you look for good things, you’ll find that too,” Salas stated, before sharing that one of the final ways to practice gratitude was by being present.
Another thing that Salas urged those in attendance to begin doing is choosing your hard. This is something that Salas has learned over the years and said that many things are hard, such as money, work, time, relationships, family and stress. Salas emphasized that she was not saying practicing gratitude would take all the negative away, but that the hard things in life can be a choice.
Ownership over the hard things can be accomplished by choosing family, gaining new skills, interviewing for work each day, investing in people and controlling emotions. Salas then said that a good practice is to embrace failure, as everyone is going to fail and the trick is to not be so afraid of failure that the step is never taken.
Salas concluded her presentation on transitions by stating that moving forward is hard, but it is harder to stay in the same place.
The sponsors for the 2024 Women’s Conference were highlighted by Mallery Dunn before the night ended. They were United Way of Eastern Utah, USU Eastern, Emery County, Emery Telcom, Emery Medical Center, Harmony Wellness & Massage, Desertview Federal Credit Union, the Southeast Utah Health Department, Parts City, Peczuh Printing, KRPX and The Swell Utah.
