I love leading, I love learning about leadership, and I love trying to become better at leadership.
So, in December, when one of my teachers nominated me to receive an invitation to National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC) for high school students, I accepted. Thanks to my amazing, generous family members, I was able to pay for all of the tuition, fees, and plane tickets I needed to attend the Mastering Leadership (ML) conference and fly to Washington, DC, last Tuesday for this incredible opportunity.
A map on the screen of the back of the plane seat in front of me.
Our first activity after arriving on campus was "The Opening Experience," where everyone in ML (38 of us) met the TAs, the program director, Ms. Luis, and our facilitator, Mr. Pruitt, who told us that his nickname was Pru. We all called him that for the rest of the time. Pru didn't necessarily teach; rather, he guided our discussions. In this particular session, each TA group came up with a team name, created a vision statement, and presented it to the other TA groups. James, one of the guys in our TA group, came up with "LOUsers" as a team name because our TA's name was Colin Lou. Our vision statement is:
We the LOUsers are committed to co-creating a safe world where people are happy and provided with equal opportunity by being supported, educated, respected, empowered, confident, and welcomed to take the chance to be themselves.
Throughout the week, we had lots of leadership sessions and TA activities. I learned so much, but explaining every activity would take too long, so I'll tell you some of the principles I learned. First of all, I learned that being a leader includes being vulnerable at times, stepping out of my comfort zone, and putting my trust in others rather than only relying on myself.
In one of the next sessions, Pru told us that we were going to "walk our walk" to some music. The chairs in the room were lined up in two long rows facing each other so that the floor between them was like a long walkway at a fashion show, and we all clapped for whoever walked. When I walked, I just decided I was going to do whatever I wanted and didn't care what anyone else thought of me or my walk. When I did just that, I felt confident and inspired! After our walk, we paused to write and sign a personal contract with ourselves symbolizing our commitment. My contract reads:
I believe in myself and others. I will uphold this statement and empower those around me.
I learned that, to effectively lead others, I have to first lead myself by believing in myself enough to change today (not tomorrow) and be who I want to be without waiting for others' approval. I'm so glad I learned this because, at the ice cream social the next day, I got out of my comfort zone and just danced like I didn't care if people saw me, and I had so much more fun because of it!
We had TA check-ins at night where we talked about the day and laughed about things that had happened. From these, I learned that I love to get to know people - not just meet people, but actually get to know them and become friends, whether it's just for a short while or for many years. I love people and celebrating the uniqueness of every individual. I learned that, to me, getting to know who people are is one of life's greatest treasures.
At the end of the third day, a guy named Maxwell from another group and I were the MCs for what we called "The World is Your Stage." We encouraged everyone to put themselves out in front of people and show off their uniqueness. Shania (my awesome roommate) read us a joke, Alejandro and Keagan danced, and Amber, Leigh, and James created a Mad Libs story and asked the audience to shout the fill-in words (the whole story was completely hilarious and James couldn't stop laughing!). I would say it was a success, and I learned that I like being an MC!
The next day (Friday), we went to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Union Station, and the Washington Monuments (we saw the last ones at night). Some of the monuments were on my bucket list, so it was awesome to finally get to see them!
At the capitol with Jenna!
Union Station
Because why not be goofy?
MLK memorial
WWII memorial - This one was my favorite. It was beautiful. It reminded me
of stories of the brave heroes who sacrificed more than we'll ever know.
WWII with Kennedy
Proud to be a Utahn!
I couldn't get a good picture with Lincoln because there were so many people!
The next day, we did a huge service project that took more than 4 hours. We basically helped pack a bunch of stuff from a storage container into a truck, then drove to a button farm (a historical farm) in Maryland to unload it and two other rented storage containers and redistribute everything into a purchased storage container, the old house on the farm, and the moving truck that was taking extra items away. I had volunteered at the beginning to help arrange everything in the moving truck, and I did a good enough job that the guy in charge wanted me to help with that for the rest of the time. I used the mad tetris skills I had learned from my dad over the many times we've moved to help pack everything neatly into the storage container and the moving truck, and we somehow managed to fit everything perfectly without breaking anything. Whew! It was really hot and humid, and there were a ton of gnats in the air, but I think it was totally worth it! The guy we were helping was super nice and funny, too.
At the end of the day, we had ML Bop, which was the dance. It was neon themed, so a lot of people sprayed their hair and put neon body paint on arms and faces. I didn't do either of those things, but I somehow still ended up covered in glitter and paint afterwards. It's hard to tell from this picture, but I have paint all over my arms and sleeves, and the glitter is everywhere (for those of you that got that reference, I am proud of you XD).
On the last day, we basically signed each others' "yearbooks," which were actually just pieces of printer paper. Still, now it's something that's really special to me because of all the things the people in my group said.
Speaking of the LOUsers (and that includes you, Colin!), thank you, every one of you, for making my time at ML one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life. You all taught me that it's okay to be myself no matter what, and to celebrate differences because they're what make us shine out. And I don't know how it happened in just six days, but I love every single one of you for the people you are, and I hope we stay in touch and get to see each other again someday! Thank you for being incredible examples to me, and thank you for changing my life. I can't wait to change the world with all of you!
(If you read this whole thing, I'm impressed! See you next time!)
Crown Princess Amory
