Leadership

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
~Abraham Lincoln

 

Leadership is something I continually strive to gain experience in every day.  A lot of what I want to do in life is dependent on me developing good leadership skills. I want to maybe run for congress or maybe serve as a judge or DA all of which require extraordinary leadership. To me leadership is something that is really hard to describe but can be easily seen. For example one of my favorite historical figures is Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was a extraordinary leader and was able to take control of the situation and the lead the union though a traumatic and chaotic rebellion and war. I think leadership is something that you gain not through study or watching but by taking control and doing your best to make the best decisions possible. Leadership can only be gained through personal experiences and trial in my opinion. I have been a leader in several organizations in high school. I was on student council and was vice president in my schools media club. I was also president in both my high school interact club and reading mentor club which I really enjoyed because it allowed me to use my talents to help other people. I hope to be a leader in the coming years as an orientation leader and maybe serving as a Carolina Productions executive member.

Study Abroad and Service

I am interested in a student exchange an am already planning on taking part in the student exchange with Warwick University in England. I am looking forward to going to England and seeing some of the historical landmarks and places. If I could go anywhere else it would probably be Russia and Poland because I love to study eastern European culture and history. I love to travel and Europe is extremely interesting to me. I have traveled to Canada which is sort of European and I really enjoyed it. My service site so far has been okay. My favorite part is probably that I can listen to music while stamping books I guess. Overall I can’t wait till I really get out to the sites to read to the kids so that I feel like I am actually making a difference.

Hope For The Future - Diversity

I am going to start out with my service site and say that I have not really had a chance to see diversity there as I mostly have been just stickering books. My view of diversity has not changed much at USC because I know I had a good view of diversity before I came here due to the fact that my high school was diverse and the place I have lived have each been somewhat unique and allowed me to meet a lot of people that I liked and disliked. Also being from another state defiantly teaches someone diversity especially if they are as different as New York and SC. To define how I saw diversity before coming here (and how I see it now) is kind of hard to put into words but I can try to explain it. Diversity in my opinion is something that people have to see in order to learn about. Every time someone meets a new person they often pick out what’s different about that person from their selves or their friends. The things that they can pick out as being different, and somewhat new to them, are diversity. For example if a person from a religious and somewhat conservative family goes to the city and meets a metrosexual they will in their heads pick out the things that are different about the city person such as different clothes and ideas and attitude. The things they pick out whether they realize it or not are diversity. That’s sort of how I always thought about diversity things that you can pick out are different from you or what you know. To go on a sort of liberal slant for a moment, I think that the day people learn to see diversity as not something to fear or hate but something to appreciate will be the day when earth become perfect.

Traditions

I have taken part in 5 Carolina traditions so far I believe. The first one was first night Carolina which although it was rained out and held in the Russell house instead, was kind of a cool event and defiantly helped the first night transition go a lot smoother. The second one was the first year reading experience which we all had to take a part in that I somewhat enjoyed but I thought maybe a different book would have been nicer. I went to a football game and therefore fulfilled two traditions in that I said the alma matter with the rest of the crowd and also heard the fight song being played during the game which was pretty cool. The last tradition I think I have fulfilled is I always take a look at the newspaper every day of the week  because The daily gamecock often has some pretty cool stories in it and it’s nice to read about things going on on campus. As far as tradition off campus my favorite tradition has to be going back Home to new york every summer because well I may have lived in south Carolina a bit and Colombia is nice and all I still miss New York and my family up there sometimes so the visit is awesome.

Fall Break

Since I have already got back from fall break I will say what I did instead of what my plans were I guess. I went back to Myrtle Beach on Thursday and visited my father and stepmother and brother which was a fun night because we watched a redbox movie and had some Chinese food which is hard to find around Columbia In my opinion. Friday I went to my mother’s house and went to go see the new movie RED which was awesome. And Saturday I went to my grandmothers and helped her decorates for Halloween and made the yard look mad scary. On Sunday I rode the bus back to Columbia and got back at about 5:00 and cleaned the room which is now spotless. Overall fall break was nice but I am happy to be back home in Columbia where all the action goes down.  

Alcohol Day

I learned some things in class on alcohol day but most I already knew. One thing I did learn was that the University is so strict that they have some measures like a DD getting in trouble that I don’t agree with but it’s up to them to decide what is best for the school I guess. During class I felt kind of felt weird I guess like I always do when things like alcohol are talked about because I believe it is more of a personal choice and that people will figure out themselves what their ideas on the subject are by trial and error. One thing I did like though is that Brent led the discussion which no offense to Jimmie, made it seem a little less professor to student and more like an older student to a newer student sort of conversation that may have helped some people get the facts. I do not know what classes I am tacking next semester as my advisement is not till November but I am hoping to take some higher level history classes possibly.

Another Service Post

My time at Cocky’s reading express so far has been okay to some extent. I mostly have just helped with labeling books and applying stickers to them during my sessions but I hope to try and go on one of the trips soon. I wish I could spend more than an hour a week and most likely I could possibly find time between classes or wake up earlier one day to help but at the moment I am just doing one hour a week. However I am sure that even after Univ 101 ends I will continue to help out Cockys reading express. I am not sure what to write for my strengths. I am going to be truthful and say that I am more prone to see my weaknesses then my strengths and usually I only know what I am good at if someone tells me that I am. One thing I think I may be good at though so far is attending class. I see a lot of people missing class a lot and while I may be late on assignments sometimes (like now…..) I always try to make class no matter what. I have volunteered with the USC democrat club this year too but I am looking forward to maybe helping out with the Boo at the Zoo during Halloween because it looks like it would be a cool way to see the zoo and help out.

Brain Rules - Midterm - Majors - And Other Wicked Cool Things......

My initial perception of brain rules is that it will bill a ghastly read because of how long it is. I really hope we are not reading the whole book because after the first little bit I read it think the intire book will be bloody terrible but maybe it will pick up a bit. Maybe that is a bit harsh but it seems to be a wee bit on the dull side. The chaps at the major and information fair were interesting and certainly persuasive somewhat but I feel like I’ve known what I wanted to do forever now so it will take a lot more to get me to even think about changing my major. I did not see either the history, criminal justice, or political science major desk there but to be honest I did not look that well as I was merely passing through on my way to  getting some grub from the cafeteria so I only saw some of the blatantly obvious stands throughout the crowd.  The best part of the fair was seeing some of the dodgy majors the university has that I would never have though were offered here. Anyway fall break is only a fortnight away and a brilliant movie is playing tonight at the theater so cheerio.

Campus Safety And The Rest

Update time getting started earlier today whew…. My classes are going great I think I just go my history paper back and my UNIV paper and both were great grades so I am really happy. My chem. test is okay and French is starting to pick up a little so as far as classes go no worries there. My favorite class at the moment is History probably, not that I dislike UNIV 101 but history is just interesting to me so it works out. I have not met with any of my professors out of class yet but I am working on asking Dr. Childs for a office interview session for my paper. I am not a big fan of having lunch with someone I barley know much less in a professional sort of environment so I think I will opt to a more informal office hours session. I look forward to getting to know some more about Dr. Childs as he is a history professor and therefore would have a lot of information on my major and classes to look out for. The safety Presentation was pretty funny as well so congrats to the “Brotha”.