KC Royals Charities Scholarship Essay

I can’t pick one, and although that sounds conceited and like I am avoiding the prompt, it’s true. I have had the privilege of being able to participate in so many leadership roles at my school and it would be impossible for me to highlight one more than the other because they have all shaped me into what I consider to be the extraordinarily amazing person that I am today. Junior ROTC brought me out of my shell it’s the reason I am able to say things about myself like being “…extraordinarily amazing.” The band helped me to learn that leading is just as much about the people who follow you as it is about how you lead. Finally being a big sister and so much more taught me that when I am in any position of power everything thing I do could be an opportunity to influence someone for the better.

My first year in high school was like all others; nothing special. Honestly, I easily fit into the cliche of the freshman afraid to speak up, I was quiet and always had my nose in a book. But as I have been told, that made me stand out and would bring me to meet some of the most influential people in my life. It didn’t take long to become established in JROTC I look back and it seems like I was destined to be put in that classroom. I wouldn’t be who I am now without all my instructors who encouraged me to meet and talk to people. Then through ROTC, I was able to branch out my personality and really grow into what I would consider a well-functioning person, it wasn’t long before I was making an impact in other parts of my school as well.

The band is to this day still my most frustrating leadership experience, and I will not lie to you there was a point in time when I quit and hung my mace up as drum major, but I couldn’t be kept away for long. My band is a colorful bunch, comprised of the smartest and most frustratingly talented musicians you will ever meet. So the fact that no one was willing to follow me was a big blow to my ego, leadership in JROCT, 20/20 leadership, and other programs had come easy to me so why hadn’t this?

The easy answer to this question was no one knew me or liked me. I was a random clarinet player who just so happened to be good enough at my instrument to catch the attention of our director. So even though I held the position of drum major, it was only in name no one wanted or asked for me to hold that position. It also didn’t help that I was 1 of 2 drum majors, the other of which had already held the position for a year and was already well respected in the band.

Luckily enough though I have gained something from this experience, I have learned that every group needs to be led differently and sometimes you just aren’t the right leader for that group. I went back to the band 2 semesters ago after my abrupt departure from the position of the drum drum major and I was offered the position again this time it would be me and underclassmen just like it had before, but only now the roles were reversed. Suddenly I had all the experience but nothing had changed.

I was still the drum major that no one respected but this time it did not make me fall apart at the seams. Yeah, it was again a big hurt to my pride that even after I was the main drum major people still respected my co-drum major more than me but now I know why. I was not a good leader for this group, my leadership style is through examples and, more often than not one-on-one conversation. I like to focus on the individual in any given group and that didn’t work here. Because a band is supposed to function as a group and just because a couple of people liked me now that didn’t change the amount of respect the band gave me as a whole.

Recently I have stopped caring what the band thinks, not because I don’t care about them but because it is not of use to me in this role. I have a job to do and I am still going to get it done. I have a similar responsibility to my sister, sadly our home life collapsed about 2 years ago and we no longer properly associate with either of our parents so due to our new arrangement I have had to step up a little bit. We are currently, comfortable living safely but the first year we bounced from couch to couch and it was incredibly hard and dehumanizing.

Luckily throughout all of that, I was able to still uphold what I think is a good example for my sister to follow and I made sure that this situation didn’t tear us apart. I love my little sister and even though we have been through what, no one should have to experience we made the best of our situation and were coming out of it alive and stronger than ever.

I never knew that life could be so hard but through everything that I have gone through I am now more than determined to make sure no kid ever has to go through everything that I did. I still want to go into science but I have a new goal in life. I want to start a program much like 20/20 leadership to fuel kids, so if they are going through something there is someone or something to hold them up and make sure they know survival is possible. I am a perfect example of that.