Page 22 - March-April HER
P. 22

22 MARCH HER
  HER Career
Anderson strives
to show love
and optimism to
those she meets
Story by Cassidy Kendall, photography by Grace Brown
The newly named assistant principal of Oak- lawn Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School, Nikki Anderson, defines herself as a well-rounded, motivating, and inspiring. An optimist who strives to serve as a role model to everyone around her. She said this mindset is the “glue” to being successful at her job.
“You have so many interactions with students who come from different backgrounds,” Ander- son said. “You have students who, their home is filled with an abundance of love, and then you have those students who are coming to school to receive that abundance of love. They need that person to say, ‘Hey, you’ve got this, you can do this, keep going, lift your head up.’”
Her optimistic personality fits “perfect” in what she strives to be, Anderson said, and in the new path she is about to walk as her new role as an assistant principal.
“I think it just opens up a plethora of oppor- tunities, just for me to be able to reach one, teach one, meet one,” she said.
Anderson said she hopes to leave a legacy of love, determination, endurance, faithfulness and genuineness.
“A legacy I hope to leave behind with not only my students but with my daughter is, when I final- ly close my eyes on this earth, I hope that every talent and every gift I have been blessed with, that I have none left; that I’ve used every ounce of talent. I want to be empty,” she said. “I don’t want to have anything left inside of me that I didn’t give out. That’s what I want to leave.”
Anderson said she wants to know at the end of her life that because of what she has been “bless- ed” with, her hands will be “empty” and she has reached as many lives as she could have.
“I want some child, or maybe even my child, to be able to say, ‘Because she believed in me because she was there for me because she helped me ... (I) want to be a difference-maker,’” she said. “Maybe it was just my smile. Maybe that was all I had to give that day, but because of my smile, it was more than what you needed that day. ... Maybe you just needed somebody to make eye contact with you, give you a warm, inviting smile just so you can know, ‘Hmm, it’s OK.’”
The only thing people can give to others, An- derson said, is the “best you that you have.”
“I think if you just give someone your best, whatever your best is, I think that’s more than enough,” she said. “Sometimes we give very little, considering whoever the individual is, and then
on other occasions, we give more than enough. ... (Treat) everybody as we’re the same and gave them everything (you) have. ... You give them all the upmost respect, and don’t let anyone feel as if they’re less than the other.
“You’ve just got to give your best you, you’ve just got to give your all, and if you do that, I don’t think you’ll go wrong, because then I think you’ll find there are things inside of you that you didn’t know that was there.”
There is always “that voice of reasoning” say-
ing there has to be a brighter day after a bad one, Anderson said.
“The day can’t always end the same way,” she said. “Even though it doesn’t look good now. It’s sad, it’s depressing, it’s disheartening to watch when things are unfolding in the community ... I always have to keep in mind: To much one is given, much is required. And so because of that, because I feel like much has been given to me as far as hav- ing a heart for people. Then I find myself saying you can’t be discouraged in well-doing.
  22 March/April 2020 ¯ HER MAGAZINE












































































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