To lead or to be led? That is the question. by Kemper

To lead or to be led? That is the question. by Kemper - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

There are only two positions in life: to lead and to be led. Looking at the bigger picture, college is only a small aspect of life, for some only 4 of the nearly one hundred years they may live. When a person turns 18 , suddenly, there are what seems like a million life choices staring them in the face. What college will you go to? What kind of person will you be, now that you have "grown up"? This is yet another one of those important decisions, will you lead or will you be led? It's not only a decision for college, it's a decision for life.

College is, however, the place to learn to be a leader. Intermural teams, student led organizations, and college life in general are perfect places to learn. That's what college is all about anyway, right? It's training for the real world, learning. It is so important to learn to lead in all of these activities rather than to learn to be a follower. If you are not leading, then you are following someone. It is subconscious. Following usually only leads to wrong paths and bad decisions. It is letting someone else make important choices for you.

Being a leader does not automatically make someone a good person. Throughout history, there are many examples of leaders who led their followers in the wrong directions. This has two implications for college. First, choosing to follow is very dangerous. All my life, I've heard stories about good people who got in the wrong crowd. Just recently, the headmaster of my school told the story of a boy he had gone to high school with. He was always a good kid, but he was a follower. After high school, he got in with that bad crowd, committed some crimes that sounded nothing like him, and is now in jail for life. That man must wake up every morning and wish that he had been a leader.

Second, leading is a great responsibility. It would be better to follow and be led down the wrong path, than to lead a group of others away from what is good. Some people should not be leaders. People who are not strongly set in their beliefs of what is good, people who do not love others, and people who do not want to do what is right should not be leaders. A leader must be kind. A leader must be genuine. A leader must be honest. It's a hard person to come by, but I believe that people with these character traits will always rise up to lead and to do what is right. If this person sounds like you, or even the person that you believe you can be, it is very important to be a leader in college and for life.