http://www.aast.edu/pheed/newsadmin/153/2_3_2_leadership-risesmart.jpgDecades from now, when my close friends, my family, and the paparazzi gather to celebrate my life at my funeral, I hope to god a level-headed and down to earth acquaintance of mine gives a eulogy about my life. I hope he highlights my accomplishments, my good nature, my humbleness, my friendship, and most of all my leadership. What do I mean by leadership? I mean that I hope this acquaintance focuses on how I affected the lives of others, how I helped make the earth a better place, and ultimately how my actions contributed to making my generation the best generation mankind has ever seen.
Does this seem a little far-fetched? Of course, but it is a fantasy of mine, a fantasy I deem worthy of holding on to. While it is certainly dangerous to focus on one's legacy after death, I can't help but be attracted to the idea of making society and this world a better place. But that is such a broad term. How EXACTLY do I want to change the world? What motives me to dedicate my heart and soul to it?
http://www.aito.co.uk/ewebeditpro4/upload/Friends%20on%20conservation.JPGWell to begin with, I always saw myself as being an international icon of environmental conservation. I started out this school year focusing on my love for nature and conserving wildlife. But somehow along my journey I began to focus less on this. I think perhaps the vastness of the issues of pollution, over-hunting, deforestation, and global warming was too much to handle. The pressures, stress, and time management issues of college caused me to give up on a cause that I increasingly saw as hopeless. In high school, when I had free time galore, these issues filled my consciousness and I dedicated much of my time learning as much as possible about them. I envisioned myself becoming a defender of wildlife, a spokesman for environmental stewardship, and an international figure synonymous with "conservation." I would be responsible for ensuring the survival of the Galapagos, protecting the biodiversity of Sumatra and Borneo, and overseeing the eventual comeback of the critically endangered Alabama sturgeon. But what I quickly realized in college was that I had much to learn and had to grow a lot before I could even be allowed to have these fantasies.
In order to grow I was forced to gain a sense of humbleness and as such I gained a certain wisdom I never had in high school. Through trial and error I learned the ropes of college, I became more organized, more driven, and more focused on my immediate goals. I learned how to deal with others better, I became more aware of the feelings of others. But most importantly I found my place in college, and I learned how to do what I needed to be successful.
So for now I still hurry past the Greenpeace activists, but not necessarily because I completely disagree with what they stand for, but mostly because right now I do not think I am ready or mature enough to be involved in such a cause. I am still a for now simply a college student chasing girls and good grades. I have a lot of freedoms and a lot of potential to practice my leadership skills, such as being in student organizations or involved in school politics. But for now I prefer a more patient approach. I have much to learn and look forward to the day when I can use this new knowledge I gained both inside and outside of the classroom in college for causes I believe in.
I believe Plan II is the perfect opportunity for me to achieve this goal. The diversity of the curriculum and the wealth of support in its writing classes allows me to express and further discover myself. Writing will be an important facet in any of my future endeavors, but in a public relations job like working in a conservation organization, writing will be imperative to my success in explaining the importance of conservation measures to the general public. It will also be necessary if I am to land desirable positions in any given organization. A well articulated candidate will surely be stronger than one who does not know how to express them self through writing.
Some classes also help me develop in ways outside of writing. 603B's rigorous work schedule helped me focus my time management skills and helped me develop a level of organization that did not exist in my life before college. As I continue to enroll in advanced writing courses in my college career, I am sure that the challenges these courses offer will be similar in approach to 603B's. I will learn to express myself in a timely, succinct, and organized manner. The culmination of all this work will be my senior thesis, which in completion of itself will have proven my abilities as a writer and give me an opportunity to further develop through a difficult trial (that trial being writing an exhaustive 60 page research thesis). The opportunities offered in these writing classes and the varied interests of a liberal arts education is essential to my intellectual development and my growth as a citizen of the world. I hope to one day look back at my time at UT and see it as the time in my life when I became the man I have always hoped to become. In my opinion a proper education is definitely responsible for an individual's leadership qualities.
In this class alone we have learned to become self-reliant, to be responsible for ourselves, and take the initiative and even lead classes from time to time. We have read books about characters going through similar situations as a freshman in college. Alice was thrust into a new world in Alice in Wonderland and Pi Patel had to navigate the empty Pacific Ocean without any help. Siddharta searched for enlightenment in a solitary and spiritual path, very much in the vein of a naive and lonely college kid. All of these characters and stories helped me to understand the nature of my stresses and the importance of my own struggles, while finding the strength within myself to find my inner leader.
In an example of my early collegiate struggles, I had a hard with time management during my first semester of college. I genuinely felt bad when I spent time doing homework or studying. Now it no longer bothers me and I finally learn to feel the satisfaction of doing assignments early and relaxing with the stress now off my back. All in all, while I still have a long way to go, I definitely feel like a more confident and responsible person, both necessary qualities for leadership.
Now I have been talking about HOW I have gained and hope to further foster my leadership abilities, but I haven't exactly gone into is why I need these abilities in the first place or how exactly I am going to implement them. I mentioned my faded passion for wildlife conservation and nature. Well, I have recently discovered it is hard to kill off a long lost passion. Thumbing through a recent issue of a nature photography magazine I could not help overlook the message of the captions. They focused on the dire conditions of the many amazing places and creatures the photographs captured. I could not help feel a sense of helplessness and pity at the state of the natural world. Melting ice caps, over-exploitation of the oceans, pollution, and entire species endangerment are just few of the myriad of issues facing this planet's ecological state.
So what exactly do I plan to do about this crisis? Well for one, I MUST finish college and do as well as I can with my remaining time here at UT. Plan II's curriculum may not have many classes focused simply on ecological or environmental issues but in order to be a potential leader in any sort of environmental organization or political movement I must be well versed in a variety of issues. I must be able to write well, I must be organized, and I must be confident enough in my own knowledge that I will be able to defend my case from both scientific and moralistic grounds. Thus, Plan II will serve as the basis for my future growth and leadership development.
After graduation I hope that my Plan II degree (and perhaps a second degree of some sort) can get me into some sort of public position that deals with environmental issues in Central Texas. I could maybe join an organization dedicated to preserving the fragile karst environment of the Hill Country, or maybe run for a local government office to hope to achieve the same results. Regardless, I would start small in the place that I love most and the place where my fondness for nature developed. But if I play my cards right and give my heat and soul to my ambitions, perhaps I can move up the chains of the growing environmental movement. I would hope that people would see my rise not as a personal search for more power but as a sincere effort to advance the cause of environmentalism. I would use my cosmopolitan education to its fullest and I would engage people of all walks of life. Instead of perpetrating stereotypes of extremist, anarchic environmentalists I will help to dispel notions about the irrelevance of protecting our natural resources and natural history.
As I would grow in prominence I would hope that my leadership abilities would allow me to mobilize thousands of supporters and volunteers. My organization, confidence, knowledge, and social skills that developed significantly in college would take me far in this task. I would hope that the scope of my ambitions soon reaches to international theaters of conservation. Perhaps one day I will find myself in the front lines of the jungles of Sumatra, fighting for the last vestiges of rainforest still home to tigers, rhinos, and elephants. I would work with zoos and reintroduce species that have not tasted the world in over a century. I would help to pass legislation banning whaling in ALL forms.
These, of course, are dreams. But like I said they are dreams I deem worth holding on to. Of the many things I have learned in my short time at college, one of them is to NEVER give up on dreams or pretend like I don't have them. Hard work and an emphasis on my leadership skills can take me many places, lets hope that others can benefit from my personal growth as well.
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