You're a Leader by Charles

You're a Leader by Charles - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

Most people don’t think they’re leaders - at least, not the people I meet. But every one of them has followers.

I learned this at an afterschool club I run on Thursdays. Most of the older kids never think of themselves as leaders and they certainly don’t act like ones. They’re so excited about evolving from snotty grade-schoolers to ‘wise’ middle-schoolers, they’ll do just about anything to distinguish themselves from their younger ‘inferiors’, especially stir up trouble. “After all,” they say, “my actions are my own.” But I conducted an experiment to prove them wrong. Every time I removed them from the ‘inferiors’, the ‘inferiors’ behaved but when I put them together, the ‘inferiors’ mimicked the actions of their ‘superiors’. Thus, one troublemaker became twenty. The problem is that the older kids don’t realize how many followers they have. They don’t know that they are leaders whether they act like ones or not.

As I go into college and pursue a career, I try to be aware that I and my peers are the leaders of this era. The questions and issues being raised across America are being raised by us not our parents or our grandparents. In schools, churches, coffeehouses, and dinner tables across the nation, people are having conversations about race, sexuality, politics, and religion that would not have been imaginable a few decades ago. We started these conversations not our forefathers or our foremothers. We are the leaders of this generation whether we act like ones or not. The only question is whether we are deliberately leading people up mountains or accidentally leading them off cliffs

College graduation will not be the end for me - it will be the beginning. I will not measure my college success by a diploma. My fellow peers, you shouldn’t either. You should measure it by what you do after college because you and I are writing the history of tomorrow. Take what you learn at school and use it to guide the upcoming generation to new and positive adventures. The future is watching and waiting to see what we’ll do with her.

But if you don’t choose to actively lead well, you’ll find yourself in a world that you don’t want and at that moment, you’ll realize that you’re the one who made it.