Finding Yourself by Casey

Finding Yourself by Casey - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

Leadership skills are absolutely necessary for any student attending college. It’s not a controversy of whether it’s needed, but what level? Student leadership is what builds most communities. The lessons learned and experience that is achieved from taking on a leadership role is priceless and valuable for your life. Skills that are needed in college are planning, communicating, decision making, and working as a teammate. Most if not all of these skills involve some kind of leadership role, so starting early is also important. I believe this is why most schools require a level of community service to graduate. By going out and taking charge in your own community, you start gaining these skills without even realizing. By the time you get to college, you probably already have most of these skills inside of you. The reason these skills are so necessary is being college is much more independent than high school, it will help you gain friends, and you’ll find yourself along the way.

As we grow up, we wish away our high school years because we want to be “grown up.” Entering senior year, I wanted to take it all back. I look back on all the years that I wished away, and wish I could relive them. As we graduate from high school, we are starting a new chapter in our life with new people, new experiences, and a new location. It’s obvious that high school and college are different in so many ways. The most substantial difference is the new found freedom we are given starting as a freshman in college. For most, we move into a new dorm with a stranger and are expected to live here as we attend new classes. It’s bittersweet; starting completely over, making new friends, living in a new area. We may see different parts of the world because we are young, ignorant, free. With all this freedom, we must find a way to stay on track, attend our classes, and pass. Using the skills we already have within us is a great way to start! The leadership skill is helpful because we won’t have our teachers there to guide us and hold our hand every step of the way like we did in high school. We must be our own leaders now. By using this skill, the weight of a new school, a new room, and new friends may not seem so heavy.

Leadership skills can also help you gain friends. By taking the reigns and finding people you share common interests with, you can make lifelong friends. The leadership trait is needed to do this however, because you need the courage to go out and find those people. Talking to strangers is not an easy thing to do, therefore by taking the lead and doing so you may find someone who you really connect with. It’s never good to be bossy, but by taking a leadership role you can find people who you wouldn’t normally connect with. This isn’t to say without this skill you can’t make friends, it’ll just make it much easier.

Finding yourself is one of the key points of college. We think that once we leave high school, we know who we are. But really we’re just beginning to chip away at the surface of our souls. We will learn things we never knew about ourselves. Using the leadership skill can help this process by taking control of your life and living it the way you would like to. You can go the places you want to, see the people you want to, and get the education you want to. It’s important to live your life to the fullest, and having the leadership skill is the perfect way to do this.