Audio_09_29_2023_10_25_26 (4) (1)

Dr. Gardner decided to work in the field of HDFS because she enjoyed studying psychology and had a particular interest in couples and relationships. Her biggest role model was her advisor for her master's program, who showed her that she enjoyed research. She spends most of her time teaching and enjoys watching good television in her free time. Dr. Gardner's biggest mistake was relying too much on others for her professional development. She has learned to be more self-reliant. She describes herself as reserved and introverted but interested in people and relationships. She is experiencing the unexpected transition of becoming an empty nester but enjoys seeing her children succeed. If she could change one thing, she would have focused more on research and scholarship early in her career. In 10 years, she sees herself winding down her career but still teaching and working with students. Her goals are to be a good grandparent and support her adult children. Her biggest achievement is her kids going off to college. I took a psychology class during my time as a senior in high school and I loved it. I thought I was gonna be a psychology major. As I was working on homework for my classes, I really enjoyed reading about couples. I wanted to find out more on relationships and therapy with them. So I swapped over to human development and family science. I spent my time doing this. My biggest role model was my advisor for my master's program who I met when I was an undergraduate student. He mainly taught research mentics. I thought I was going to despise it but his class made me realize that I loved it. I was fairly good at it. So I spent probably three years working with him as an undergraduate and then two years as a master's student working with him. He's probably my biggest influence. I know how influential professors can leave an impact on their students and I feel like that's a key role. I like to watch good television. So I like good TV shows. I like to read as well, but lately I've been watching TV. My favorite show is "Lost". I've thoroughly enjoyed teaching and I realized early that I was good at it. I've gone towards that as a career. I spend a lot of my time teaching and helping students. I learned that I had a lot of teaching oppurtinities in the beginning. I taught classes such as parenting and counseling skills for undergraduate students. I've done this ever since and really love it. My biggest mistake was thinking that other people were concerned about my professional growth as I was. Then I trusted that other people knew what was best for me and my development. I also relied on those people who were far ahead in their career than me. I haven't gotten very good guidance from them. I need to be a little more self-reliant and not think that that it really begins and finishes with me. It doesn't start and end with anyone else or myself. That is my biggest mistake I've made so far. I am more of a reserved introverted person who likes to keep to themselves. Even though I'm shy, I want to be around people. I'm surprised by people relationships. It's an interesting dichotomy. I would say that I am reserved or introverted, and the type of person who would study people and relationships. That would describe me. My husband and I will be empty nesters soon. I always knew it was gonna happen. It crept up on us. It's an interesting part of life to have all of our kids gone. I like it. It's also different. It's nice to see them go off and be successful and be independent. There comes a stage where you can only develop so much when you live with your parents. Your progress is restricted until you are by yourself, doing whatever, and becoming responsible for yourself. It's really good to see our kids having that time and to see how and where they grow now that they're gone. There's a pleasure about watching it. It would be the direction of my first career at OSU. What I would do differently could be fixing some of the things I dwelled on or some of the decisions that I made during the first part of my career. I don't regret anything but it would be nice to try a different path and see how it turns out. Two things I could have done is focusing a lot more on research and scholarships rather than teaching. That could have led me in a very different place but I don't feel that it would be more satisfying or content than what I'm actually doing because I find a lot of satisfaction while teaching. Many people say that you can't be happy with the research that you complete and that's not the actual reason why I am there. The real reason why I'm there is for my students. I have a plan to see how it will go. I would hope that I'm almost close to quitting my profession. I'll be 60 by then and I won't have begun retirement. I'll still have many years before I stop. I see myself still doing the same things. I will keep doing a lot of teaching, a lot of mentoring, and a lot of guiding students in the right direction. I believe that my legacy is the bond I have with past and present students. I don't have any goals. I'm trying to check them off. The goals I have right now are to be a really amazing grandparent because I now have grandkids. I'm trying to be a really good grandparent to my grandkids and supporting my adult children's lives. That's where I get my happiness from and this feels like a reward in that piece of my life. I'd say my greatest achievement is my family. I've accomplished the task of sending my kids out into the world and what they are currently doing. I think that's my greatest achievement. I guess it kind of just goes back to what I said earlier when I was going through the 10 year procedure. I feel like when I was going through the endurance process here, I didn't get very good guidance or mentoring in that process. The result would have been a less overwhelming and more fun time. And so I think that's been the biggest challenge professionally is just navigating that tenure process and then bouncing back from it. I focused on my talent and I realized that I was good at teaching. So I mostly focused on the skills I am good at and didn't think about things that are not strengths or weaknesses of mine. I already mentioned this previously. Don't depend on other people. Don't necessarily recognize that other people share your best skill. You have to stand up for yourself. I was a psychology major at first. Then I switched to human development and family science. I minored in psychology. It is the result of a lot of great mentoring from my professors, both advisors for my master's and doctoral programs. To get into this position, you must believe in yourself. Take the intake project. No one's gonna pressure you or force you to do it. You have to do it all by yourself to get to a stage like this. I feel like family relationships are the most critical thing there is. There's nothing else that is similar to that or matters nearly as much as how we connect with family or strangers. I also want to talk about how well we form close bonds with relatives and the people in our family.