HELLO BLOGGING WORLD!

I haven't been this technologically confused since my first day of twitter! Let's do this.

First off, why I'm here. I'm not one of those college kids who has taken up blogging as a recreational outlet of my thought process- at least not yet! What has *ORIGINALLY* brought me here is an assignment via a freshman seminar at OU titled "Lead Your Way"- basic idea?

Blog Blog Blog in order that I Think Think Think.

Goal of today's blog-

---Tell you who I am.
---Tell you what defines me as a leader.

Leeeego.

So, who I am. I'm going to try and keep this one concise.

Union High School graduate, loud and proud. I did theater for, like, SEVEN YEARS. (Long time, right?) I was dead set on attending a fine arts university to do theater or musical theater.

Uh, God had other plans. Haha.

April 24th, 2011, sometime around 4:30-5:30, things clicked in a way that only God can make them click, and I knew I was going to the University of Oklahoma, and I was going undecided. I didn't like not having a plan, but I knew it wasn't the worst thing that could happen to me.

Little did I know it was going to be THE BEST thing that ever happened to me.

Roll the clock forward nine months. I'm a member of Beta Upsilon Chi, aka BYX, aka Brothers Under Christ, I work in a sorority house, I'm a part of Sooner Freshman Council (Currently planning International Prom, let's go!), I'm in charge of the entire 2012 rush and recruitment process for BYX, CAC crew, and it feels like every night is either a meeting, greek activity, party, work shift, or study session.


AND I LOVE IT.

According to Strength Finders (2.0!), I'm a Woo-Positivity-Communications-Futuristic-Strategist. If I could beat you over the head with one of those, it would be positivity. Optimism is a choice- SO CHOOSE IT. It's not only healthy for you, but it's infectious. When you're positive, you're INFECTING other people with positivity. It's a win-win combo, and it's a win-win combo this world needs.

Alright. What defines ME as a LEADER.

Here's the deal. In the book we're reading for this class (I'd tell you the title, but it's in my backpack which is juuuuust out of arms reach- stay tuned for the next blog and I'll pull it out then!) The point they hammer home is that "being a leader means obtaining followers".

Which, technically, is true. But it kind of leaves out ALOT.

Leadership is a myriad of characteristics, it's almost moreso the BALANCE of characteristics that make you a leader. However, there is two I will hit hard in this blog, two that I think are fundamental to the way I personally lead.


INTEGRITY and VISION

Lesson one about being a leader- before you can EVER lead anyone anywhere, you're going to have to spend a lot of time figuring out, and refining who you are. And once you figure out who you are, YOU HAVE TO STICK WITH IT. As a leader, who you are is your image, and if your image doesn't match up, then you're in Struggs city. There has to be a CONSISTENT CORRELATION between who you are and who you say you are. In our society, we're very, very good at noticing when that correlation is absent, because it's come to the point that we subconsciously assume it's absent. As a collective whole (not everybody, but generally speaking-) our culture has an innate disposition to be skeptical of the integrity of our leaders.

How do you beat out the skeptics?

Consistency-consistency-consistency. Be who you are, be who you say you are, say who you are, be who you say you are, be who you are. See a trend?

Lesson two about being a leader- even if people trust your integrity, if you don't have a vision, where are you leading them? Vision is the core to fueling any project. Because of my specific leadership trait combo (woo-positivity-communication-futuristic-strategic), vision is something I focus very intentionally on. I can look into the FUTURE and STRATEGICALLY plan feasible and ambitious ideas, and then COMMUNICATE them to the committee I'm working with with a WOO (wildly energetic) emphasis, and my overwhelmingly POSITIVE nature allows me to handle any criticism or objections in good nature, allowing the project to adapt as seen fit by the committee I'm working with (see what I did there? Okay, good.) Basic idea- vision guides the project, the more of the vision you can flesh out, the more you can plan things AHEAD of time. Planning ahead of time=good.

Get it? Got it? Bueno.

On that note? I bid you bloggers adieu

BYE BLOGGING WORLD!

respectably, BYXswag