Parker | Age: 18 | Warren, MI
Leadership is... the ability to give others the tools needed for them to understand that they matter, giving examples and experiences so others can make the most educated decisions.
Leadership in Life... During my senior year [of high school], I was given the honor of being one of the four Drum Majors to lead the 250+ Rambler Marching Band. Getting thrown into a situation to have over 250 people looking to you for instruction and leadership is an extremely daunting task. I'm sure if you're reading this then you're expecting some sort of instant success story in some perfect world... That's not what happened. The most stressful thing that happened during my time as Drum Major was conducting the song that I had previously won rights to over a game of rock paper scissor (best two out of three). The song started off extremely slow, and then quickly sped up to a rock-latin tempo. The hardest part for me was I seemed incapable of starting off the song at the right slow-speed. It seemed like I could never get it! Knowing that it was beyond my own ability to fix, I used one of the leadership skills that I think is severely underrated, asking for help. I asked the other three Drum majors as well as the band director for their help with my tempo. After many hours of practicing and falling asleep to the correct tempo, I managed to overcome this rhythmic road block. Asking for help allowed me to grow in leadership in a way that I would have never expected.
Advice… "Yesterday is history, tomorrow's a mystery, and today's a gift, that's why they call it the present." Your past doesn't define you, you learn from it. You can't set a goal for the future and just expect it to happen, nothing is set in stone; however, what you do now defines the first step you take towards the future, with each step the future becomes clearer and clearer.
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