Senior Essay 28

Being part of Gen Z means there’s an unspoken book of rules you have to follow, like if a person likes your Instagram story, you don’t talk to them in person, but there’s an understanding that it’s mutually agreed. These unspoken rules come with a sort of shame and embarrassment that for some reason makes you scared to raise your hand in class even though you are there to learn. I’ve dealt with this embarrassment myself though I’m ashamed of it. I’ve always loved flowers and crafts, and I’ve preferred to give thoughtful gifts over anything of significant monetary value. Through this hobby I found myself making floral arrangements for parties, friends, and family. When my mom brought up how it could turn into a business I was delighted that my work was considered good enough to consider making it a profitable business. As I decided to make an Instagram account i was faced with a sudden doubt, what if it wasn’t successful and I was deemed a failure by the people that surrounded me? I let the thought consume me for a couple of days but I looked at business owners and their stories of when they began. Most contained failures but then success. Inspired by these leaders I created the account! Fast forward 3 years and my floral business is an LLC where I receive between 20-30 floral orders per week. I went from being in my kitchen making these arrangements to taking the bottom half of my house to store my professional equipment. Though some would interpret this as where I demonstrated leadership it is not. The real leadership was when I made weekly contributions to my church and I decided to donate my services to low-income families. Funeral homes charge a hefty amount for their services, especially for anything floral. I met with families and friends who could not afford or could not fathom having to organize the small things during mourning. Though I am one person doing that for families and parish members I’ve felt more than fulfilled. Taking that initiative has allowed me to become more empathetic and understanding of different situations that are difficult. In the future as a nurse, I plan to continue to take this initiative and approach giving as much as I can. The leadership that I’ve demonstrated through my work is not only a monetary one business driven one but it is also one that allows me to give back. As a future nurse, I don’t want to limit myself to only serving my community while at work I want to continue to expand my business to be able to give back to my community. Using this leadership I would also like to start a nonprofit for low-income families going through a loss I’ve personally seen how much families struggle and go through during a loss and though I know that I can’t do more than lessen their worries a bit I would like to continue doing what I do with passion and compassion.