Tags

, ,

What exactly is leadership? Leadership is the tiny speck of light that shines goodness on the world. It’s the thing that helps us fall asleep at night knowing that there are still good, genuine people out there. It’s just the thing that fills you with hope when things go wrong. But, there’s also a downside to leadership, and this is the most common form we see today. Leadership is the darkness that drowns our planet in hate and ignorance. It’s the thing that keeps us up at night, worrying about the future of our race. It’s the thing, which in turn, is weighing us down from reaching our full potential. How is this you ask? How can leadership be the light of hope and the hammer that obliterates it all from existence? Easy, it all comes down to who is leading. For every person in power and every leader, there are followers. Whether it’s forced millions in the form of a dictatorship, or a select few of impassioned rebels fighting for freedom, they are all being led by one, or a group of leaders. By taking a look back at history, you can see the greater meaning of this idea. Adolf Hitler was the leader of Germany during World War 2. This one man, all because he was in a position of power, almost single handedly wiped out a whole race of people. The scary thing is, people supported this! This right there shows that no matter what you do, or what your morals are, if you are in a position of authority PEOPLE LISTEN. However, there are people who do lead with good intentions. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who felt strongly about a cause and decided to speak out. He wrote and gave speeches explaining to the American public that the practice of discrimination was morally and ethically wrong. Guess what, PEOPLE LISTENED. This man had created millions and millions of followers for himself and his cause. His followers banded together and established what we now know as equal rights! These two men have probably the two most different philosophies this planet has ever seen, yet they are alike. They were both leaders. What sets them apart is what they did with their position of power. I know what you’re all thinking, “How does this impact me?” Well believe it or not, by being elected into this class and by the offices that you uphold, you are all in a position of authority on campus. Every day, good or bad, you are leaving impressions on the student body. You are all leaders, AND PEOPLE LISTEN TO YOU. When my council was selling MORP tickets, a lot of us were telling our friends that we weren’t going to sell enough tickets to have the dance. Then, they decided that if not even us believed in our own chances, why should they buy tickets? So MORP was cancelled. When we were throwing our Kick Off 2014 dance a lot of us didn’t even bother to promote it by social media or by word of mouth. Why should the Student Body decide that they should spend their money on a dance that we aren’t even passionate enough about to send even a tweet or two? So, we fell far short of our attendance goal and lost money. On the flip side, we have used our power for good this year. During homecoming, our council was full with Queen Creek pride and believe me, people noticed. My council mates were out there telling people how amazing the dance was going to be and that there was no way they should miss it. That dance, we broke the QCHS dance attendance record. All because we decided that we were going to have our positive voices heard. PEOPLE LISTEN! Whether you are Student Body President, Junior Class Secretary, Sophomore Class Treasurer, or Freshman Class Rep; you all have followers that you influence on a daily basis. We have the opportunity to truly make our schools an amazing place to attend. We can turn Games into events that athletes look forward to because they know that we will be in those stands making noise and cheering them on, while also having a blast bonding with our second family. We can decide that Prom is going to be the highlight of the Junior and Senior Classes high school careers. We can throw the craziest and most fun pep rally that has ever happened on our campus. The opportunity is there, you just have to ask yourself; WHAT KIND OF LEADER DO YOU WANT TO BE?