Learning to Lead

It seems like it's been forever since I last posted an entry, and so I'm sorry to all of those people who have been wanting to read more! Your patience and gentle nudges have finally brought me to this point.

This past weekend, I attended a leadership conference at Paradise Lake with the individuals that I work with on Union, as well as some of the other councils that are actively involved in the school. It was an incredibly revealing experience and I truly enjoyed every moment I spent there.

There are three moments that really stood out for me (in a positive light) this weekend that I want to share with all of you. Maybe this is something that you can relate to, or maybe it's something that you can learn from.

The first moment hat really stood out for me was being on the High Ropes course. I was completely confident in my abilities to do this. I have no fears of heights, and a lot of trust in the equipment that is used. Nonetheless, getting out onto the course I was overwhelmed by the amount of support that was shown to me and to all of the members at the conference. People were shouting words of encouragement to people they barely knew, focusing on motivating them through the difficult challenges that they faced. Watching people that I know well struggle to face their fears, and then loving life after they had achieved their goal was an incredibly humbling experience. My congratulations to all of my teammates who made it through the courses.

The second moment that stood out for me was a fantastic speech given by Sister Martha, or as she preferred to be known while on the retreat, Martha. Martha spoke to us about how important it is to find balance between our own personal lives, and the challenges we face when we come into contact with the lives of others. She taught us the power of centering ourselves and becoming comfortable with where we feel that we belong. She taught us that the strength of a team comes not from how much we accomplish, but from how we relate to ourselves and to one another and how these relationships impact and drive what we do. This is something that I find personally challenging. I often forget to take care of the person that I am, and what my core values are when I'm working at achieving at task. It was nice to have someone validate for me that it's okay for me to take a time out and breathe. That is something that I will need to continue to remember while I am stressed out and overworking myself during the year.

The last moment that really stood out for me was hearing David Perrin speak. Dr. Perrin spoke to us about what it means to be an outsider. This is something that I found incredibly inspiring. We often lose sight of how much we take our positions for granted, and it is not often that we feel we need to challenge our surroundings and become an outsider for a little bit. Dr. Perrin reminded us of that, and I am forever grateful.

Along with all of the leadership building and communication building with others that we took away from the experience we shared, each of us also got a book on leadership. The book was Strengths Based Leadership, and it talked a lot about how the best leaders are the ones who effectively use their strengths to guide other team members. We were each given a code to take an "inventory" online to discover our strengths. This is something that I was incredibly excited to do! I love learning more about myself, and I was curious to see how close I would actually be to the results that would appear. I took the test today and laughed as I read, word for word, the story of my life. And so for your enjoyment, I have included in my post today, my 5 strengths, and a little bit of information about each of them...

1) Restorative
-I am a good trainer and teacher
-I help students overcome their failures and conquer their weaknesses
-I like working alone to figure out why/how I fell short of my goals and prevents me from making them again in the future
-I desire to be influential and be pit in charge of groups or projects

2) Significance
-I gain a sense of purpose by working
-I want people to listen to me
-I encourage others by celebrating their successes
-I provide motivation for people to reach their goals
-I am eager to take on responsibilities and make decisions
-I look forwards to the benefits that I get out of rank

3)Input
-I give good advice (usually)
-I enjoy reading
-I desire to gain additional skills and talents
-I make great leaps when I am given the chance to exchange ideas in a group
-I love complicated procedures and I can reduce them down to simplistic terms
-I enjoy helping other understand how to follow these terms

4) Strategic
-I find the right words to say to express myself and my ideas
-I love to share my ideas
-I pay close attention to everything that goes on around me (even if it looks like I'm not)
-I figure out what is actually important in the information I get, and am able to focus on the and pinpoint problems and emerging ideas
-I can find links between things that other people can't

5) Learner
-I enroll in challenging situations willingly
-I expect to be in the loop about everything, whether it effects me or not
-I am always looking to find new ways to do things
-I try to get out of situations where people want me to keep doing the same repetitive tasks.

I couldn't believe it as I was reading the descriptions of these skills. I was finding myself agreeing with everything. i highly recommend that everyone go and check out the book/website!!
http://strengths.gallup.com/110659/Homepage.aspx

All in all, I had a great weekend, and I've learned so much about myself and how I can work to be a better leader to the people that I will be coming into contact with over the next year. I'm so excited to see how everything is going to turn out!!

The blind leading the blind

March Madness has begun!!

Trying to keep up with the piles of work that I have left to do before the end of term has been difficult to do in the past little bit. But I'm doing okay. I am so excited about some great news i got regarding my commitments for next year!

First, I am social convenor elect for next year's SJU union! This is something that I have been wanting to do for such a long time and I am so excited to have the opportunity to do it. I can't wait to strat planning for my events!

Second, I will be an Off-Campus Don next year! This is something that I never thought that I would be doing. I'm sure that everything will run very smoothly and I look forward to meeting all of my first-years.

Somehow in the midst of all of this, i found the time to go to The Working Center this week. I'm so glad that I did. This week there weren't as many people as there were last time, but we still got a lot accomplished.

The first thing that I did was tie knots in the rugs that had been weaved. I was so excited when I saw the rug that I helped make. It was beautiful! If it's there when I go in next week I might buy it. It would make a great addition to my room.

Next I made these little books that pop open to reveal 3 diamond shaped pieces of hand made paper. Misha showed me how to do one, and then I taught two other people how to make them. the first one I did failed horribly, but the ones that I made after that, and the ones that were made by the two lovely people helping me turned out beautifully.

I was so happy when Misha suggested that I teach the two others how to make the books. Up until that point I think that I was being very reserved in the ArtSpace. I was pushed out of my comfort zone. But when i was given the role of "teacher" I did well. I really started chatting it up to the people around me.

One of the men that was there (a regular) was crocheting a rug. He wanted to know how you would crochet a scarf, and I told him that I would bring my stuff in and show him next week. He seemed really interested and I hope that he will find a love for crocheting like I have.

I can't wait to get back there next week. I think it will be a wonderful break from the hustle of my life right now. As well, a lot of the volunteers won't be coming next week because it's March Break, so I think I'm going to bring my boyfriend, and maybe my brother along with me. I hope that they'll enjoy working in the ArtSpace as much as I do!!

False Alarm

I arrived 20 minutes early, according to the clock that was hanging in the back corner of the ArtSpace. I paced the room for a bit, looked at all the herbs and the teas, and the homemade soaps. Then I got scared because I forgot to read up on how to make homemade soaps...
So I sat down and I waited. 10 minutes to. I rummaged through my bag, looking for nothing. 5 minutes to. Where was everyone? Did I have to work one-on-one with Misha? She would find out EXACTLY how little I actually know about everything. I was hoping I would just blend in!
2:00. Was I supposed to meet her downstairs maybe? I have no idea how this works. 5 minutes after, I hear girly voices entering the room. A wave of relief, "Here they come!" I thought.
Instead a tour-guide turns the corner, "This is the ArtSpace. Misha usually works here but she's not here today". Her gaze lands right on me. She gives me a puzzled stare. "Are you waiting for Misha?"
I nodded. "I'm volunteering every Friday, 2-5". At least I'm supposed to. Did Misha not know? Did I come at the wrong time?
"Well Misha's not here. You'll have to come back next week."

I was angry at first. No one e-mailed me or called me or anything. I had built up this huge rush of adrenaline for THIS?! I even learned to knit! Can you believe it?
Walking back out to catch a bus, feeling thoroughly ripped off from a possibly awesome experience I started to laugh. I had just been complaining and worrying about not being good enough, and now I was made because I didn't even get to show off all of the knowledge that I don't have. How pointless for me to be angry!

I'll go back next week. It's getting off to a shaky start, but I think in the end it'll all be worth it.

Beyond U Placement

My Beyond U placements starts tomorrow. It's all I can think about. I'll be working with Misha in the Arts Space.
I'm a lot more nervous than I ever thought I would be. It's funny because when I started this program, I thought for sure that I would want to do something that would challenge me to step out of my comfort zone. But I'm starting to panic now. I have no idea what I'm doing!
In the past two weeks I've taken up cross-stitch, herbalism, and knitting (I already crochet, I've been doing that for years!) in a desperate attempt to suddenly be fluent in the language of creativity. I've read every possible thing online about how to make paper, and all the different ways that you can recycle junk into really cool stuff. My favorite was this barbie wreath http://www.instructables.com/id/Barbie_Wreath/ . How cool, eh?
Really I know that nothing can prepare me for walking into the Arts Space tomorrow at 2. I just hope that Misha will be patient with me while I desperately struggle through the whole thing.
No worries. Right?

My Introduction to Beyond U

“Six months from now I’ll be paralyzed.”
I looked up from my book, right into the ice blue eyes of the man standing in front of me. There was no doubt that he was speaking to me, but I had no idea why.
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.” What else do you say?
He shrugged, “They just keep giving me painkillers. Won’t help much when I can walk, or get around on my own though, will it?”
I shook my head. The man turned and walked away from me, head held high as he braced himself against the door before walking out into the cold.
Everyone needs a bit of a wake up call. A startling jolt of reality to bring them back from a world where nothing goes drastically wrong. I got mine sitting in The Working Center, waiting for my colleagues. And unlike what other people might claim, my wake up call was not a sudden realization that there are social injustices in the world. I have been well aware my entire life that there are starving children in third world countries and homeless people on the streets. The realization I came to was that every one of the people that walked through the doors of The Working Center had a story. And while the business-people and the shopkeepers snubbed them on King St., categorizing them as homeless, or poor, or “slow”, they were dying to tell their story to anyone willing to listen.
I’ll admit I’ve never been a really good listener. I drift in and out of conversations, and I would rather voice my own opinion than listen to someone else’s. But the Working Center is all about communication and interaction. It breaks you out of your comfort zone, and places you in a situation where you need to learn in order to make the interaction work. Whether you are making homemade paper and herbal teas or taking apart computers and bikes to recycle, you need to learn how to communicate and listen effectively. It’s all about discovering yourself, and understanding more about the people that you are working with.
As a student participating in the pilot program for Beyond U, I’m required to tell you about my experiences at the Working Center through blog entries on the SJU website. But the more I sit in The Queen Streets Common Café, the less I want to tell you about my experiences, and the more I want to tell the stories that I hear, and learn though during my time spent there.
I want to be able to show you that making a difference doesn’t mean giving up your precious time to sweat over food served to the homeless. It doesn’t even mean that you have to work at all. Sometimes, you just need to sit, and wait for someone to come to you with the story they are dying to share.