Follow the Leader

The world is full of leaders; Presidents, Queens, Mayors, School Superintendents, Clergy. Obviously there are many attributes shared by great people which make them leaders, but to me, the necessary characteristic for true leadership is having a knowledge of those who follow a leader and of those who are superior in status to a leader. Prime examples of this are State Representatives who know the people they represent and understand their needs, but also understand the political context in which proposals must be promoted in order to address their followers’ needs.

For me, as a high school senior, this means learning what makes my peers and underclassmen “tick” and what they truly desire, along with having a firm understanding of my teachers’ characters, likes and dislikes. It also means that I must be the best I can be in my classes and in my studies. Unless leaders know those they are leading, they are not truly leading properly. It is more than winning a popularity contest or boasting of accomplishments that defines a leader; it is one’s character and understanding of human nature in general as well as an intimate knowledge of the specific goals, needs, and aspirations of their followers.

I practice the characteristic of knowledgeable leadership through spending time with those I lead, whether on the soccer field where I am a team captain, or in the classroom, where I am willing to help students whenever I can, such as answering a quick Spanish conjugation question or spending time going over a calculus problem with my friends. I enjoy my role as a group leader of my peers in our Bible class where I lead the group in discussion and question-answering. At the start of my eighth grade year my class was scheduled to take algebra one-half as our math class; I proposed to our math teacher that I felt our class could handle the algebra I curriculum. Our math teacher was persuaded to allow our class to enroll in the more advanced class. Within a week, 85% of my class opted to take the harder course. As a result of the change, many of our class members are now taking calculus II rather than calculus I, and consequently, we are more prepared for college.

Another necessity of knowledgeable leadership is an aspiration toward scholastic achievement. One must know what is going on in the world and how things work in order that he or she may be able to understand how to serve their followers completely. I attempt to attain this goal through attention to my schoolwork and setting high goals for my grades. I am on the High Honor roll with nearly a 4.0 Grade Point Average. I have also taken initiative through completing two college courses at Mansfield University, one the summer before my junior year and one before my senior year in high school.

Being a leader requires much of a person. Self-sacrifice and a strong sense of moral ethics are important characteristics of true leaders; a principled leader inspires a higher plane of morality through his example, words, and teachings. But to be a successful leader, a high measure of knowledge about one’s followers and the world is essential.

Psh!

I wake up. I go to the bathroom next to my bedroom and take a fourteen minute shower, dress in the outfit I had chosen a week before, go upstairs and drink a glass of grapefruit juice. I speak with my parents about my day’s activities and go to Eddie’s restaurant with my father for breakfast. After visiting two banks and making other necessary errands, we return home and do chores.
Sounds like a typical Saturday morning for me. However, after finishing whatever chores I have, I drive the Subaru into the garage and bring out the vacuum cleaner. I vacuum the dashboard, take out all of the floor mats and beat them with a stick, vacuum the carpet, even the back seat.
Finished with the car, leaving it cleaner than it was when we bought it, I return to the bathroom and blanket myself in cologne and pose in the mirror. I sit down on the stairs and tie the laces of my pure white Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star High-Top “date shoes,” bid my parents farewell, start the newly cleaned car, and head north.
After forty-two minutes of driving I reach Elmira South Side and wait in the parking lot of the Pizza Hut where I was to meet my blind date, a date set up by one of my best friends and his girlfriend. I wait. And wait. And wait. After about forty-nine minutes of waiting (I had gotten there perhaps eighteen minutes early), I was a little nervous and decided to call my friend. He’s at the mall with his counterpart, and I tell him I would hopefully meet up with them as soon as my date arrived. After sixty-four minutes I call my date’s cell phone about six times, each time my phone telling me that there was a problem in connection. Frantically I re-call my friend, demanding answers from his girlfriend, the only human connection I have to my date. The only solace given is that her (my date’s) cell phone provider is an obscure company, and that’s probably why the connection issue exists.
After 117 minutes I decide to return home, finally realizing and accepting that I had been stood up. While driving home I wonder why I hadn’t checked inside the Pizza Hut; perhaps she had been waiting for me for 118 minutes in the restaurant. I don’t turn back, what’s done is done. All I can do is continue on with my life. That’s really all anyone can do.
I haven’t talked with Michaelyn since the night before the non-occurring date. I don’t really care to chase butterflies. Perhaps it’s better that it turned out this way; I certainly learned some very valuable life-lessons. I picked myself up after falling off of my metaphorical bicycle, and while I haven’t quite mastered two-wheeling, I’m well on my way.

First Blog

Music and the Teenage Society
For modern adolescent- and teenaged- people, love of a genre of music is as necessary to proper development as high self-esteem, increased responsibility, and a minor case of a rebellious attitude. But, a young individual’s choice of genre of music may define what “crowd” to which he may belong, and, ultimately, may define him as a person. While many genres of modern music co-exist in the world today, the four major types liked by teens in America are as follows (in no specific order): Punk Rock, Grunge and Emo, Indie and Prog Rocks, and Country. Even as I write this, I, a modern teenager, am listening to my own music, and I can’t help thinking who I might have become had I bought a completely different “First CD” from the one I purchased so long ago. Would I be more driven, more easygoing? More outgoing, or more shy? The innumerable questions posed in my mind, all caused by one possible change in the past, the mere changing of one album bought by an insignificant pre-teen, seem daunting.
The cliché “Punk Rocker” is generally a whiny person, due mostly to the fact that the music to which he ascribes is whiny in nature. Partially-poetic complaints of government, parents, and girlfriends often cause this person to be quite a rebellious youth who cares much too much about his appearance and is thusly labeled a “poser” by the other cliques. A close friend’s brother is a good example of this, although not perfect. He always is wearing American Eagle brand clothing, a rather expensive product, and it is very clear that he fits in well with his “crowd.” Possibly this person is also a “Trust Fund Baby,” who, while being disrespectful toward his parents, often gets a relatively free ride to college, which bodes well for the future of this young adult.
Grunge and Emo are rather inseparable, as those who listen to one or the other are infinitesimally small in difference. Grunge/Emo music is much whinier in nature compared to Punk, so much so that Grunge/Emo can be said to produce a depressive vibe which is mirrored through the listener. One of my classmate’s brothers is the perfect exemplification of the Grunge/Emo person. Black is his color of choice for clothing and makeup worn, and he wears these in order to be feared and noticed. While all cliques generally stay within themselves for kinship, the Grunge/Emo clique is more ostracized by the group as a whole in comparison to the other groups. This man is destined to remain skateboarding the streets, living in his mother’s basement, and working at a full-service gas station well into his adulthood.
Those who delve in Indie and Prog(ressive) Rocks are probably the greatest hope for free-spiritedness at the modern American Public School. My best-friend’s girlfriend is this type of person. Her music is the “Jazz” of this generation, as off-beat as she is, and she is the hippy of this generation. She and her fellow indie/proggers can be found in coffee houses across the country, playing hooky and listening or producing some form of art, be it low-quality poetic, acoustic, or canvas in nature. While my acquaintance may not, the typical person ascribing to the genre of Indie and Progressive rocks will remain in coffee shops spending money he or she doesn’t have on frappes he or she can’t afford indefinitely.
Country music, unlike the types of music aforementioned, sires a more hardworking individual who will contribute to society before even entering his twenties. “Ol’ farmhands” learn to work heavy machinery and lift bulky bales. Country singers can be young, attractive blondes who give teenaged listeners a sort of idealized future wife while learning to respect them through listening to the lyrics of their songs. Eventually they will serve their country or acquire a farm of some breed, and live a stable life (no pun intended).
While, of course, there are exceptions to every stereotypical person, one realizes a stereotype becomes what it is due to a relative frequency in truth. Freedom is as American as apple pie, and musical freedom is what produces so many types of popular sound. But, while being free, one omits to a track of lifestyle in his choice of music, be he or she aware of it or not. True, there are many different types of people being raised in American schools today, but there are also many of the same kind of persons keeping each other company.