Lead and they will follow.

             While filling out an application for NCYL, I was been given the opportunity to reflect on all of my endeavors over the past three years and reflect upon what a leader really is. So, what makes me a leader? What sets me a part from everyone else filling out this application? Well, I don’t know that answer, because I believe that everyone is a leader in their own way, and most of the time we don’t realize it. Maybe, a leader is defined by his or her characteristics.

I believe that I am a very kind, generous, and outgoing person. I love giving my time to help others and I always look for a way to do so. My favorite volunteer projects I do are the ones when I get to spend time with children. During the summer I serve lunch about two to three times a month at a church, down town, in an under privileged neighborhood. At the church there is also a Boys and Girls Club. We serve lunch to these kids as well. I just love playing with the kids and really watching them from the beginning of the summer, to the end and how they grow and develop a personality. This past summer, we did a project with the kids and they drew illustrations of what they want to be when they grow up. As I went to sit with one of the kids I had grown attached to, I looked down at her picture and there I was. She said that when she grew up, she wanted to be just like me. I had known this little girl for a little over two months and in that amount of time I had exuded some amount of leadership to make her aspire to be me. This was a really defining moment in my life where I realized that what you do and how you carry yourself really make a difference in how people perceive you. Since then I have made it a point to always show a positive attitude, because when you’re happy, there’s no doubt that you can make someone else happy.

            Being kind and loving, goes hand in hand with being a good leader.  In the past three years at Kennedy, I have been a part of a numerous amount of leadership positions. My freshman year, I got the wonderful opportunity to be the student director of the spring musical, Sweeney Todd. I got to work side by side with an amazing leader and role model. My leadership did not stop there. My sophomore year, I was Treasurer of the Theatre Department and student director of a speech event. This year, my junior year, I am the President of the Theatre Department, Secretary of the Class of 2013, and student director of a Playtime Poppy production. These positions have helped me grow as a person and increased my responsibility immensely. They have helped me to realize that helping and leading people is what I want to do.