Leadership Sails into the Calm Waters of College Success by Guillermo

Leadership Sails into the Calm Waters of College Success by Guillermo - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

In the dawn of entering college for the first time, those summer months that seem to melt rapidly under the sun as this new chapter in one's life rushes closer and closer, one cannot help but to wonder in awe, despair, or both, whether or not they will be ready for challenges they will face. Some may have struggled through high school as if trudging through dense jungle, whereas others feel as if they sailed gently on the turquoise waters of the Caribbean with the summer breeze, but regardless of the journey, doubt about one’s chances to succeed in college can creep up silently like the darkness of night.

As a current college student, I can attest to the sinking feeling one feels when the days grow shorter and shorter as the first day of college approaches. Am I truly ready? Will I be washed away when the tsunamis of deadlines come crashing down on me? After 3 years of going to college full time and working full time concurrently for my freshman and sophomore years, I can attest that, to be successful in college, all one really needs are leadership skills; the rest will grow from the shoulders of these skills. Success in this perspective is not to merely survive college. Success is to thrive, to have high honors and grades, to be a grand pearl amongst the ocean floor.

What are “leadership” skills? While there is no concrete example of which set of skills make up the “leadership” skills, there are two skills of particular interest to those that want to succeed in college that fall under the realm of leadership: Discipline and communication. Should one be able to fully practice and become one with both of these skills, then success in college – and in everything else – is not only assured, it becomes easy. Failure in any one of these skills will cause success to become a much stronger effort, like a ship sailing in a storm, but forcing you to learn these skills in the process.
The skill of communication is one that some might not at first realize is necessary for success in college, but it is important. In the context of leadership, communication is the ability to both convey intent and emotion to another person so that they can feel it for themselves. Someone with average communication skills may be able to find team mates for projects and find friends among the professors; one will not necessarily do poorly.

But, to truly succeed at a high level, strong communication skills are imperative. Strong communication does more than just find team mates for a senior project; it draws in talented individuals that become as inspired and enthusiastic to start the senior project as one’s self. Strong communication does more than help befriend professor; it enthusiastically drives professors to the limits of their resources just to help one achieve their goals. This is because strong communication does more than tell others about the journey – it takes them on the journey as well, creating a strong hull of support with which one can sail through rough trials and still expect to come out on top. That support will help overcome the waves of deadlines and that stand in the way of college success.

The skill of discipline is as important to grades as the sun is to life; its absence will cause the other to wither away into the darkness. Unlike the sun, the more one learns and practices discipline, the stronger and wilder the thriving of the grades become, and there can never be too much of it. In the context of leadership, discipline is the ability to focus one’s efforts and energy into whatever end goal, regardless of the circumstances.

Procrastination and the sensation of “good enough” are difficult to deal with. Like the sirens in the Odyssey, they call their sweet song and lull one into close deadlines and subpar work standards. Parties, movies, midday napping sessions, midnight food runs, games, frustration, boredom: these will all in some way affect one’s focus and effort on any given assignment or goal. To defeat them, one needs to strengthen their discipline. With strong discipline, one can both enjoy entertainment and have high grades, without necessarily choosing between the two. Discipline can also help avoid about 90% of all-nighters (at least in my experience). Rather than straining against the waves of close deadlines and heavy work, cruise gently to college success with the discipline to calm those waves before they become powerful.

Many people enter college without some of these leadership skills, but even if both of these are missing, one needs only to be open and determined to learn the skills of discipline and communication to achieve the goal of college success. My first year in college was certainly a wakeup call to all of the poor disciplinary behaviors I developed in high school, and my communication skills were only slightly above average. This, mixed with working a full time job to pay for school, very much drowned me under the depths of workload and deadlines early on. But, from the burning ashes of my freshman year I learned the skills of discipline and communication, and thus emerged as a surviving sophomore, and now as a thriving junior on the dean’s list. I, therefore, wholeheartedly believe that leadership skills are necessary for college success.