Putting Out Fires: Lessons in Life and Leadership by Anhony

Putting Out Fires: Lessons in Life and Leadership by Anhony - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

Anyone who has found themselves in a managerial or other leadership position is probably familiar with the term "putting out fires". When a leader "puts out a fire", they put aside other tasks to take care of an emerging problem that demands immediate attention. A leader is sometimes required to stand by like a firefighter in a station, as they stand back to allow others to complete their assigned tasks, and wait to tackle any issues that pop up. Sometimes their vigilance pays off, and they can address the problems with little trouble, and other times, they face a perilous situation as the "fire" in question threatens their entire undertaking. However, no matter who they are or what their fires are, every leader who "puts out fires" does it for the good of the people they serve.
Ever since I was a small child, I had been drawn to and somewhat awed by the act of serving others. An insatiably curious tot, my teachers had labelled me as a bright and intelligent student. This was how the world knew me, and I had no qualms with this. However, this was not how my parents knew me. To be sure, they were very proud of my academic achievements, but to them, it wasn't my most distinctive trait. my most distinctive trait, in their eyes, wasn't in my head, but in my heart. My mother especially noted that I had an ironclad, strictly defined sense of right and wrong, which was the lens through which I viewed the world. Whether it was by showing visitors around the wildlife refuge where my dad worked, or helping seasonal ornithologists band migratory birds, or pretending that my brother and I were space police, service was always something that resided in the back of my young mind. Looking back, it's obvious that if there's such a thing as destiny, my destiny was to serve others. However, it took a long time for me to realize this.
When I was nine years old, my dad took a new job managing the wildlife refuge in his old stomping grounds of northern New Mexico, and i was thrust into what I perceived to be an alien environment. I went from a tiny farming town full of salt-of-the-earth, God-fearing people, where intelligence and work ethic were prized, to a gritty, struggling small city, where drug and gang crimes were a day-to-day occurrence, and you had to toughen up if you didn't want to be torn up. Unfortunately for me, my quiet and meek demeanor and thirst for knowledge marked me as an outsider. I was ostracized for much of my middle school career, and I probably would have continued to be bullied and rejected if I hadn't stumbled upon FFA.
The National FFA Organization is a premier agricultural education organization, and its members strive to live up to their motto of "Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve". In this organization, I uncovered a knack for leadership and public speaking, eventually rising to the position of President of the local chapter. In addition, I found a support network and incredible group of friends. Through my involvement in FFA, my disposition for service was catalyzed, and I eventually took on leadership roles in student government (class president) and National Honor Society (chapter president), as well as getting involved in a non-leadership function with MESA and my church's youth education programs. All of these organizations are, in some way, geared towards service to a community, be it local, national, or international. Through my involvement with them, I learned to tackle problems that I saw, whether they were emergent or already present; I learned how to put out fires for the sake of causes as wide-ranging as student recreation and world poverty.
For most of my life, I had looked in awe at people who devoted themselves to serving others, and put them on a high pedestal out of my reach. I told myself time and time again, "I can't do what they do". My participation in these organizations allowed me to tell myself "Why can't I do what they do?" Through these organizations, I've helped to fight problems such as hunger and poverty, lack of science education among children, and low student involvement in school administration. Most recently, in an ironic culmination on what I've learned over the years, I've joined a local volunteer fire department, where I will fight actual fires, and fight what I see as the most important fight in the world; the fight for people's lives. I hope to continue this fight by dedicating my life to law enforcement and criminal investigation, so that I can serve others by defending them. At the beginning of my high school career, I wouldn't have dared dream that I could do such a thing. Now, it's all I dream about. I owe these dreams to the service organizations that enabled me, the organizations that brought service to others out of my subconscious and made it my mission.