Chapter 6
Generate power
It was my sophomore year in high school and I was the Sports Editor of our school newspaper, the Salishian. It was the end of the year and school elections were coming up soon for the following year, as well as applications for top news positions. My advisor, Ms. Woodhouse always made sure that I felt that I was valued and a key member to our team and to the school. She was very adamant about encouraging me to run for class president and to take on the job of Yearbook Editor for the following year.
I was very hesitant and didn't believe I was capable enough to accomplish the high demands that these positions required, yet with her encouragement and tenacious bothering, I completed both applications and passed with flying colors, gaining a large majority vote for student body president and a "shoo-in" for Yearbook Editor, according to Woodhouse.
The time that I felt so incredibly without any power or direction was during the week of national signing day, a time in the first week of February where high school seniors politically commit to a collegiate athletic team. At this time I had my MSU Letter of Intent hanging over my head as well as very drawn out wait to hear from University of Oregon as far as my prospects to run for the team there. I felt so out of control and that my life was up to the higher powers who only needed to check a simple box to make or break my future. I felt like Icarus flying too close to the sun and not by my own accord. It was easily one of the worst and stressful weeks I've experienced yet.
Thanks to the persistent encouragement from the beloved Ms. Woodhouse, I continued to climb the ladder of leadership in Journalism. By senior year, I had gained the position of Editor for the school newspaper and was even writing pieces for the local papers as well. I had an incredible team behind me and an ever supportive mentor. Our advisor was new to the program so I really was in charge of everything and everyone. It wasn't a power trip though. It was a give and take of a large pool of talents and creative minds and great leadership all around. I was so blessed to have such an incredible team eager to learn, and even more eager to write.
Reflecting, I can continue to be a catalyst to others and their individual greatness and successes. I can continue to be full of inspiration and passion and most importantly encouragement. By pushing others to step outside their comfort zones and keep striving forward, greatness and dreams really can be achieved!
The paradox that is...
Leaders turn their followers into leaders. Wait...but do they?
Many leaders, including myself, struggle with the art of delegation.
Many battle with this because in their minds they believe they can do it better, faster, nicer and they understand what is needed to be done so they just do it.
Also many, I believe have a degree of personal fallacy- an idea that they truly are the best.
You should delegate because non of these ideas are actually true. You have a team. Use them. Each of these individuals have a unique perspective and set of ideas to bring to the table. By using them you can further propel yourself and your creativity as well as the entire team, company, branch, or what have you. It's more efficient, sensible, and delegation really does work when you remember that you aren't god.
1.Trust
2.Encouragement
3. Confidence
4. Inspiration
1. Thoughts? GO!
2. How do we start?
3. How do we change this up to be different from the last
4. What are your visions for this particular task?
5. What sections are you most interested/ passionate about?
6. When is our deadline?
Chapter 7.
I. After being team captain and MVP for my sophomore and junior year in both cross-country and track, I was awarded a plaque that meant even more to me; and my coaches I believe. At my last ever team award banquet for cross- country I was given the coaches award. My two coaches, Matt Seeley and Jenny Brown made a very moving speech about how over the years I had demonstrated the most leadership, sportsmanship, team-spirit and skill. I remember them touching on the fact that I also not only been just an athlete but a good friend to both of them as well as the team and was always one to go to to double check training plans, workouts, race plans, dinner events..yada yada yada.
I have never felt so appreciated and loved in my life. In addition, all of the younger girls had put together a personal present on top of the plaque and gifts from the coaches. They were all little inside jokes and little things that touched on things that I would do or say. I cried. A lot. There was just so much love and appreciation!
II. Her name was Lucy. Its the first day of 3G at Camp Warren and Meghan Cosgrove, my incredibly inspiring boss had just finished screaming out the cabin list to mine and Marisa's cabin full of first-time boundary water warriors. Seven girls total, Lucy was immediately the most confident and least shy out of the group. This little twelve year old was oozing with spunk and excitement.
We went through the first day getting to know one another and you could see the carefree way Lucy would carry herself just put the rest of the girls at ease. We spend the first night setting out our trail gear in preparation for our early morning departure and by this point Lucy has singlehandedly psyched up the entire cabin for our five day adventure in the Boundary Waters, including my co, Marisa and I -a nd this definitely hasn't been our first rodeo in tripping, but there was something about how Lucy and the rest of the girls were talking that made this one seem even more special. Turns out special was an understatement.
Never have I ever enjoyed myself more, gotten so close with my campers, laughed so much, and been so proud.
These trips aren't the easiest things in the world, yet because they are the shortest ones Warren offers and because both of the trip leaders, Marisa and I, have quite a bit experience on trail it was possible to make it a bit easier if needed. But was that what our girls wanted? Absolutely not! They asked to be pushed and challenged. And they received!
As a trip leader, you always focus on pushing your campers past their mental, physical, and emotional boundaries. But with limits of course. Our main focus is for them to feel in power and confident in their abilities and their work with a team and experience being a personal leader.
We gave them the opportunity to do it all and I don't think there was a single time that Lucy did not offer to try something new, take a canoe on her back in a known to be hard portage or paddle in the wind. Her eagerness to do and try anything rubbed off on the other girls quickly! By the second day Marisa and I weren't even paddling and rarely took a canoe or pack on portages. We only assisted in navigation and by the end of the trip they even had experience cooking trail food! We were basically there to make sure non of them got hurt and keep the group moving but ultimately, it was the girls who did it all.
The most inspiring thing of it all was that whenever the going got tough, it was Lucy who would be out in the canoe singing or screaming words of encouragement to the rest of the paddlers, or just laughing and telling ridiculous jokes to lighten everyone's mood and keep us all moving. She really was a natural born leader.
The last night at camp we have a tradition called firewalk. Among other things, it is a chance we as a camp take to recognize exemplary campers, one from each of the three sections. The award is called "firestarter" where they actually physically start the fire at the front of the room and ultimately kick of the night's festivities. When our intermediate section was called together to nominate a camper Marisa and I were jumping with excitement and determination. Lucy HAD to get this award. There just wasn't any other person that we saw that was anywhere near her level. Luckly, the rest of the intermediate section agreed with our statements and by consensus, Lucy had it.
On the last night, as Marisa and I were describing Lucy we both burst into tears. Tears of pride. This little girl had made such a difference on us and the group as a whole. I was taught so from her and even learned more about myself from her. I will never forget this little Orono hockey player with enough spunk to save the world.
