The past few weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about Graduation, The “Real World”, Who I am, Where I want to go in life, Who I want to be, If I want to stay in the HTM industry, and What will really make me happy. I’ve been trying so hard to figure out how I’m going to make it through this huge transition period and stressing out over little things, like homework and tests and group projects… when in reality, those are so small in comparison to how much I’ve already accomplished in my life, even just in the past 4 years at SDSU.
I’ve had a song stuck in my head for the past few months now, and I decided to listen to it again today, this time really thinking about the message it was trying to portray. I realized that it’s what I like to call, “My Defining Moment” song. Before looking at my leadership theory model and seeing my whole journey, take a second and listen to this song… it will change the way you think about your life.
Leadership is a process of new experiences that will provide you with the skills and opportunities necessary to aid in your transformation. There will always be ups and downs, highs and lows, love and heartbreak, gains and losses…but the person you become as a result of all those things, makes you into your own unique leader. Here is my journey…
When I was a child, I wasn't much of a leader. If anything, I was a follower and depended on my parents. When they got a divorce, my trait-based leadership qualities were very prominent. I was a lover, destroyer, caregiver, seeker, and magician. I had to be a leader for my family. Then came high school where I joined the Pep Squad and became the co-captain and captain my Freshmen an Sophomore years. This situational leadership taught me how to be a coach and not solely direct my team. At 16, I got my first job in the restaurant industry. This allowed me to take on my first big responsibility. I learned the value of a dollar and got a good taste as to what the "real world" would be like in the future. When high school graduation came around, I was accepted to SDSU and all my friends were accepted to UCSB. I, of course, wasn't smart enough to go there like the rest of my AP friends. This became my first real transitional leadership experience. As I went through my first year of college, I had to be my own leader. I had to live on my own, without my friends and family, in a new city and a new school. After my freshmen year, I came home for the summer and decided to commit my life to Christ by getting baptized! This threw my whole leadership experience for a loop. I had to give up my entire life and put it in someone else's hands without having any control over anything anymore.. (still haven't fully mastered that concept, considering I like to have control over everything!)
When starting my sophomore year of college, I decided to join the Connections Team at Flood Church. It was an excellent way to get more leadership experience by taking on a volunteer staff position in the community. This sparked my love or hospitality so I decided to switch my major from Interior Design to HTM. I joined MESA and started a new job in San Diego at Extraordinary Desserts (again, continuing in the restaurant industry and getting my foot in the door in HTM). This was a year when I was experiencing a Relational type of leadership role. I was interacting with tons of people on a daily basis, and learned how to work with people of all types. When I turned 20, I experienced a life-changing incident. I was sexually abused. That was the first time I ever felt like I had absolutely NO CONTROL over anything. After that type of experience, it tends to spark a lot of emotions in a person. I started wanting to be a catalyst for change and take on leadership roles in places that I actually believed in. (Hint: why my blog is all about believing)... any who, my Junior year, I needed an HTM internship, so I started working at the Grande Colonial Hotel. Little did I know, this was going to be a huge transformational time of my life.
Then I turned 21, and well that's just a transitional period for anyone, right? I took on the Connections Intern role at my church and received an event internship at Sundt Memorial Foundation. Learning to multitask while having 2 jobs and going to school full time is an excellent skill to acquire. While being a Connections Intern and working at a non-profit, I learned what it was like to be a servant leader. Not getting paid, but still serving the community... THAT is what I want to do the rest of my life (but hopefully get paid). Serving others is what makes me strong. I took a strengths finders test and my top 5 strengths were: Empathy, Belief, Input, Consistency, and Discipline.... all perfect strengths to have if I want to be an event planner or work for a company I actually believe in. This made me think about all my past experiences and consider working for a non-profit someday (completely changing my HTM mindset).
And now here I am today, with college graduation right around the corner, as confused as ever about where I want to go in life. All I know is that I've been through a lot and every decision I've ever made has helped shape me into the Relational-Servant Leader that I am today. I have truly experienced Transformational Leadership, and hope to continue this transformation the rest of my life. I've been blessed with a mentor and a growth group of girls for the past few months. We have helped aid in each others' transformations. In the future I hope to continue my goal of being a true Servant Leader. I want to have each one of the qualities necessary to fully serve others... I just want to be happy. (I know, I know.. cliche right? It's the truth!)
The End.
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