May 9, 2010 - LEADERSHIP ~ The Remix

LEADERSHIP – the Remix

Leadership - prior to college I had a vague notion that it involved titles, power, and charisma. Then I arrived at Mount Holyoke where every first- year had some kind of title, plenty of brainpower, and charisma to spare. We could wear our snazzy shoes and spout about neo- transitionalism; we knew how to take good notes and earn participation points. What we did not see those first days, however, was that here, former titles are lost; style means whatever is on the top of the laundry basket, and mere elegant verbosity is not equivalent to a logical discourse. I had stepped onto a track that was about to reshape me.      

They draw you stealthily at first, flinging wide the door of opportunity with hundreds of campus organizations, athletic teams, committees, and initiatives. I joined a sports team my first year, residential life my second, and an a cappella group my third. Consequentially, I made friends. That was when the trouble began - because I had started to care. Suddenly there were first-years looking to me as their mentor, an a cappella group relying on my musical skills to direct their arrangements, and before I knew it, I had been unanimously and involuntarily elected of co-chair the eighteen-members Sacred Symphonies. The pressure of leading was not on my to-do list. But as I said, I had begun to care, a power that carried me a very long way. Making music outweighed my insecurities despite forthcoming complications. Apathy as well as a lack of structure and accountability had made the group weak over the previous term and created internal conflicts. My co-chair and I spent the semester working to clear up disputes, define the mission, and draft a constitution. Once seduced by strength of our friendships there was no turning back - and I didn't wish to. That is the danger in caring: it always leads to something. If you let yourself love people, then *gasp* you might want to help them! 

In addition to avoiding authority roles, I also felt an aversion for politics, particularly within the school. That would have made me yet another apathetic undergrad except for Marija. If you have never encountered aggressive proactivity and affectionate gentleness rolled into one then you must meet Maria Tesla, the Serbo-Croatian Eleanor Roosevelt with a Jackie Kennedy flare. Since the days of our work together as RAs, Marija continually astonishes me with her clear-minded and congenial way of getting things done. When she confided her plan to run for student government association (SGA) president, the political activist in me burst out (or was created in that moment - I'm not sure). Less than an hour and one hundred signatures later, I was running Marija's campaign. I believed that she could make a difference and I cared to see her make that difference. As of Tuesday evening, I am proud to announce Marija as SGA president-elect!   

     What does this mean when the real world happens, when your best professor's contract isn't renewed and you don't like it because, darn-it-all, you care! It means stirring up polite dissent by organizing students in a letter-writing campaign. It means making the change that I wish to see. This year has redefined leadership for me as a state of servanthood, ambassadorship, and humility. Rising from a state of apathy to one of activity, I am transforming in response to the strenuous and disciplined training here at Mount Holyoke. Our education stirs us to work for and care about something greater than Self. Mary Lyon's vision for the college - "Head, heart, and hands" - persists in our curriculum today. There is now nothing more fulfilling than pouring myself out for another, for in so doing I am filled to overflowing. This principle guides me now as I prepare for a life of community-building at home and abroad, and it starts at the personal level. It starts with the lessons I learn here.

   

Aside:
    After running away from the "impracticality" of a music major, I finally gave in to what I love most. My music major combined with an anthropology minor will prepare me for the ethnomusicology graduate degree that I plan to pursue following graduation in December of 2011. This and next summer I hope to travel to Ethiopia where I will do the body of my research for a senior thesis in the anthropology department on the effectiveness of the Ethiopian orphan care system. I have given considerable thought to spending a few years between college and graduate school in the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, or another similar volunteer program. No matter what I end up doing, you will mostly likely find my in Africa.