Senior Essay 42

Throughout my 4 years in high school, due to the connections I’ve gained, friends I’ve made, and the teachers that have grown fond of me, I have gotten ample opportunities to display my positive leadership qualities. As an introverted person, I have spent most of my life being content with being one of the quieter people in any given room. Asking my parents or elementary school teachers will show that I have been like this since birth. However, my 4 years in high school has made me learn that despite my personality, being a respectable leader is still possible. My first encounter with this is with the sports I’ve voluntarily participated in: cross country and track. I’ve been running as a distance runner for my school since the second semester of my freshman year, and I had to work from scratch due to my lack of athleticism in my past. Last fall, going into my final semester running cross country, I had the privilege of being knighted as the team’s co-captain. It was a major weight of responsibility put onto my shoulders, and it was a somewhat reflective experience knowing that I was in the exact position of people that I used to look up to in previous years and as the runner with the fastest times, I knew that my performance would set the tone for the rest of the team. At the beginning of the season, several freshmen and track refugees joined the team with little experience in cross country or distance running in general. Practices were often physically intense for them, and the transition was overwhelming. I made it a priority to run alongside newer athletes during workouts, give them pacing and form advice, and share the lessons I had learned over the years, either through my personal trial and error or by the previous team captains that were in the same position that I am in now. Instead of focusing only on improving my own times, I focused on building confidence within the team. When we would leave a Saturday morning meet with an energetic team and multiple new PR’s under our belt, it was because my actions conditioned everyone around me to make their race a strong race. The story isn’t over, because spring is right around the corner, and with the warmer weather of spring, comes track season. With my last season of high school track, I will have the opportunity to display my leadership qualities to more people.
Even outside of my school, I have gained opportunities to display my leadership qualities. Ever since freshman year, I have volunteered monthly at a downtown homeless shelter in Kansas City, known as ShelterKC, with my church, Shiloh Baptist Ministries. In my hours serving food and drinks to the local homeless community, It has not only changed the way that I look at other people’s lives, but my own community. Out of the small group that we have volunteering, I am the second youngest member. This has shown to me that going out and intentionally volunteering isn’t a popular thing to do with people in my age range. It is a reminder to myself that my act of intentionally going against the grain and doing what I think is right is a leadership quality that is found in few people and no matter what happens in the future, I am planning on carrying the qualities of leadership that I have learned till the end.