A Work; In Progress

Preface: This blog accurately tells the story of my life because it is late (Sorry!!!!)

First off, thank you for taking the time and having the interest to read this post when there are so many other more interesting life stories to read in our class. I’ll start my story off at my freshmen year of high school. I was a polar opposite of what I am today; shy, quiet, not as adventurous. I had a few friends but none that were really my close friends. I went to class, hung out with my guy friends at school, went to marching band, and then just went home to do my homework. I didn’t really hang out with many people outside of school nor did anything else besides just school work.

Sophomore year things changed. Classes got harder, I for whatever reason increased the number of classes I was taking, and I didn’t have class with a lot of my friends anymore so I didn’t really get to see them. A lot of the stress definitely took its toll on me and my grades. However, that year, I joined Key Club (a school service group) and Student Council. I started to meet a few more people and started to develop myself as a leader. I had also taken a year off from band so Key Club was a nice way to see my friends that were in band as well as a way to see them outside of school.

Junior year things changed a whole 180. I joined the water polo, track, and tennis teams. Even though I sucked at the latter two, I loved water polo. Besides the actual sport itself, I was given a brotherhood that spent 16 hours together in practice alone and even hung out afterwards. I rejoined band and made new friends with the class below me that I didn’t meet the last time I was in band. One of my initial memories of that year was when one of my band friends said “hey want to come hang out after practice today?” because until them, I didn’t really hang out with high school friends outside of school. That year was also the first time I went to the Homecoming dance, Prom, other school events, and any of the basketball or football games (yeah the sports fanatic me). I never went before because I was super self conscious for whatever reason. I was also moving up in leadership roles and more of the teachers started to notice me individually.

Senior year was the perfect way to finish off high school. My Relay for Life team raised the highest donation total in high school history, my NHS committee for the blood drive placed in the city in percentage of donors for the first time, I was playing regular varsity minutes after only one year on the team for water polo, and somehow I was on Homecoming Court and Prom Court. I never saw that kind of an ending to high school after starting out being so quiet and shy. I think it was fitting that our graduation song was “For Good”.

High school truly allowed me to grow out of my shell, become a better person and friend, and gave me the opportunity to develop myself as a leader. This was a huge set up for the next stage of my life, college. I had two colleges in mind, the University of Cincinnati and of course The Ohio State University. Many of my best friends from water polo were applying to OSU which pushed me to even though I was dead set on going to UC for a while but I thought I would give OSU a chance. Towards the end of my senior year, I found out I was accepted into the Mount Leadership Society Scholars. Later I would find out that even though I applied to Bio Sci Scholars, our scholar’s director read my essay, which was about leadership that I had done in high school, and decided I would be a better fit for Mount. Additionally, my friends took me up to Ohio State on April 25^th, 2010 to show me the campus. I was so unprepared for my college search, took the ACT on the last day, didn’t really do any visits or research, so I didn’t really know what to expect. At the end of their make shift tour, they took me to the top of Thompson and that was where I decided I wanted to go to this school. Oh here is the kicker; those friends were friends I made through Key Club…

Still reading? I owe you ice cream if you haven’t fallen asleep yet…

My first year of college was ROUGH. I thought I wanted to be an eye doctor despite how competitive it is. That was really just a decision I made for my parents and not myself. I didn’t live in the same building as the other Mount kids. On the contrary, I lived in a really small building so all of the friends I thought I would make, didn’t exist. Like we had 12 kids on our side of the floor…. Also our building was on the extreme opposite of Halloran House. Additionally, I was super home sick and kept going home, missing out on making friends during the weekend. I didn’t have anyone to help me make that transition to college so my study habits sucked and my first quarter grades were just as bad. After fall quarter, I seriously considered transferring back to UC.

I came back for winter quarter and had to stop going home so much because of the weather. (The following winter wasn’t as bad as this one. If I had graduated one year later, I might still have gone home as often as I did in the fall). Also Mount was getting more involved. So I was stuck at OSU and forced to do more things for Mount. As a result, I got closer to more people in Mount who would invite me to go out, get lunch, or attend other things on campus. Essentially, they now knew I existed. I took on a larger role with Mount towards the end of my first year which led me to make my best friends today. I decided to stay at Ohio State and changed my major to exploration after realizing all that the school had to offer.

Sophomore year, one of my first friends in Mount asked me if I was interested in looking into another student group with her on campus; Student-Alumni Council. After being accepted to SAC, I met more of my closer friends and a group of people that love Ohio State. I spent most of that year thinking I wanted to do something health related. After volunteering at the James Cancer Hospital (as a project for Mount) I realized that I did not want to be around sick people. Additionally, at one of our new member classes for SAC, our advisor told us this concept for StrengthsQuest; Fixing your weaknesses prevents failure while playing to your strengths leads to success. So I decided to pursue my strengths and changed my major to finance.

Junior year was a struggle because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life specifically or if this was event the right choice for me. I was also on class excuse from SAC for the first half. Semesters kicked my ass….but after coming back to SAC, I was able to find a support group that led me to other opportunities. One of my friends in SAC passed along an application to apply to facilitate the Leadership Collaborative the following summer, one of my most rewarding experiences even though I was never an LCer myself. Another friend told me about leading a Buck-I-SERV trip, which led me to meet Kristen who may or may not be reading this right now. I also saw an SACer post a status on Facebook about a girl that came up to her and told her she was her tour guide and my friend was the reason that girl decided to come to OSU. That status is what made me want to be a University Ambassador. Half way through SAC, I decided I wanted to give more to the organization and ran for exec with a little push from my mentors in the organization. Shortly after being elected to VP of Finance, I was invited to a But For Ohio State event in Cincinnati. At the event, alum shared their But For Ohio State stories. One of whom was Chris Poon, dean of Fisher. She told her story of wanting to go into a health profession originally, instead working for Johnson and Johnson, and then being recruited back to Ohio State to be dean. I had always considered coming back to Ohio State to work and also working for JNJ so I sent her an email. She asked me to come meet with her and I remember after talking to her, having this feeling for the first time that I knew what I wanted to do with my life.

Senior year, who knows what lies ahead. But to think that I may have found what I wanted to do with  my life was a domino chain that started from joining one student organization in 10^th grade out of the need to find more friends, I feel as if the best is yet to come if I let it. My life is nowhere near perfect, and I am fine with that. Otherwise there wouldn’t be mistakes to learn from, failures to make my accomplishments that much more cherished, or quite frankly, anything to live for. I hope you’re not regretting the 30 minutes you spent reading this that you will never get back but that’s my story, a series of events linked to  one another in ways I could never have imagined. 

My Leadership Swag

I wanted to ask my scholars advisor for feed back on my leadership style for this blog post but she was unable to meet with me before this post was due. (Actually she forgot to set the clock in her office back an hour so she thought I never showed up to see her and left, got home and realized she was home an hour earlier than she was supposed to be)

But the reason I wanted to ask her about my leadership style is because 1) she has known me since freshman year, 2) she has seen me in a variety of different roles, 3) I knew she would be critical and would give me honest feed back on what I could improve.

If I asked one of my friends for feedback, I was afraid they would sugar coat their answer and I also wasn't sure if they had seen me in a stressful situation.

I found some middle ground and asked my co-chair for Post-Mount Committee. She is a year younger than me in the Mount program and I have known her since her first year at OSU. We worked together with two other co-chairs last year on a variety of projects. Here is what she said:

Pros: analytical, innovative, positive and can relate with anyone. Always asking the question; "How can we be better", on top of things.

Cons: Get frustrated with waiting for things to happen, not very structured, not too detail orientated.

I looked forward to getting feed back on this topic because I am always trying to improve myself personally. Asking for the positive things was comforting. Asking for negative things made me feel uncomfortable because I was afraid the other person was uncomfortable because they didn't want to hurt my feelings or something. But I assured them I wouldn't take anything personally. Picking someone to give feedback was the hardest thing. I do hope to find time to ask my scholars advisor for her feedback as well.

I think this is a good idea because we all see ourselves as certain types of leaders but it's important to see what we actually are like based on the views of those we lead.

Values

Values.

When we started class with looking at our social media, I wasn’t surprised that my top three values weren’t displayed on my top 5 tweets (which are great). The reason being is that I don’t use social media to preach my values. I use it as an outlet for my humor and wit (or what my friends call #AmitJokes….). To me, social media doesn’t paint the full picture of who I am, but just a part of me.

It’s kind of like the different levels of friends you have. There are some friends you have where you just know the basics about them, their name major and hometown. Then there are your good friends, which you can remember a few memories here and there where you two hung out and had a great time. Then there are your best and closest friends, who know everything about you.

The “Amit” that is shown on my social media would be what my acquaintance friends would expect to see, someone light hearted, likes to joke around, and loves Ohio State. But if you really wanted to know what my values were, you’d have to ask my closer friends. Maybe my other friends could guess them, but my closest friends would not be surprised by them.

That’s because values are something you show through actions, not tell through 140 character messages. Ask my friends the last time or how often I have shown my 3 values; Kindness, Significance, and Family and Friends.

Kindness- because we can never have enough it in the world. Never underestimate the effect of a simple act of kindness. I remember one time when I was walking on the Oval back from an advising appointment, frustrated with not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. Then I looked up and the Boo Radley Society was in front of me for High Five Friday. After getting numerous High Fives, I felt instantly better. I am sure that many people have a similar story like that. That is why I try to display kindness to whomever I run across during my day to day because you never know what they are going through nor the impact of your simple actions. The C that I think matches with this is consciousness of self, knowing how you display yourself in public and being aware of your actions.

Significance- I think a lot of people have this goal for their lives because most of us want to make a significant difference. Whether that be measure by money, or lives you touch, or championships you win, everyone has a different measure of significance. I hope that every position I hold or project I take part in has some sort of significance. But significance isn’t something that just finds you, it’s something you have to work for. The best way to earn significance is to commit to something you are passionate about. For Student-Alumni Council, we helped host the Alumni Awards, an evening when many of our most distinguished alumni are recognized. These alum were so accomplished that many of us in SAC joked, so what are we doing with our lives?? But I realized that these people, the founder of BuckeyeThon, a former CEO of McDonalds, all earned their way to this banquet not because they were chasing significance or a desire to be recognized, but because they were working for something they believed in. They were Congruent with their beliefs, dedicated to Change, and understood the meaning of our schools motto; education for Citizenship.

Family and Friends- it’s hard to think where or what I would be without the support of my family and friends. Most of my friends have been a huge sense of inspiration for me, motivating me to be better. I value them not for what they have done for me, but who they are. Together, we all hold a Commitment to each other.

My Headline: There were a few headlines I thought of but the one I decided to go with was “Renewable Energy Source Discovered”. Many of our problems today are created because of energy needs. Wars over oil, stagnant economies because of rising prices, and environmental destruction.  Hopefully with a new renewable energy source, these problems will decrease but it is just one of many issues we face in today’s world. 

????

Our scenario:
The executive board of a sorority on Ohio State’s campus is collecting their members’ dues to pay for their own membership dues and for extemporaneous things, such as alcohol, expensive dinners, and designer clothes. A newly elected member of the exec board learns of this and doesn’t want it to continue. What does she do? She knows that by exposing this it would ruin everyone’s reputation.

Our Answer:
First, the new executive board member should address her fellow board members and express how she feels. It may be the situation that her fellow leaders feel similarly but are afraid to speak up, and by taking initiative she could solve the problem within the chapter and not make it a public scene. If this does not work, the member should write a letter to the national headquarters of her chapter explaining the issue. It is the responsibility of an executive board member to report her own chapter if she feels that they are not adhering to their values, and it is the responsibility of the headquarters to appropriately deal with issues that arise in their chapters. The national association should be able to step in and respectfully and tactfully deal with the issue, bringing the least possible public attention to the negligence of their chapter.

What's your answer?

Orange Blue Green Gold, ENTP

I am not surprised by either of my results for the color test or Myer's Briggs. My top color was Orange. I'm  not one to sit around at home and just watch TV or something. I feel most alive when I am either with friends, or on an "adventure". When I say adventure I mean I'm doing things such as trying new things, checking out new places or traveling, or attempting to do something so I can say I did it. Over the past three years, I would consider exploring Columbus, going to 7 or 8 different states, and trying to go into every OSU building an adventure. But of course, none of these things would be fun without the company of my friends, again emphasizing my orange.

Through my leadership roles and experiences, I have learned I hate structure. I would rather have a general idea of what needs to be done and what the lesson plan will be and just go from there. I try to delegate the task of creating time lines and structure to other people when I can. If I get stuck with that task, I most likely get frustrated and struggle with it. I consider myself more of a problem solver when those plans don't as they should.

My lowest color is gold. This makes sense because gold's like structure. However, looking at the description for gold, I realize that there are qualities there that I also have and value, just not as much as my orange qualities such as value tradition and family.

As for Myer's Briggs. I originally took the assessment my first year in Mount. I like and don't like how it is a "either this or that" test because I would say there is a lot of middle ground for most of the traits. I am an Extrovert but there are times when I enjoy my alone time. After a long day, or a stressful week, or during a time I need to reflect, I would rather be by myself. That said, I love it when I am with people. Whenever friends in high school would ask me to plan something, I would invite as many people as I could that were available. Other friends would invite a small group of us when they were planning things.

I wasn't always extroverted, more so towards 9th grade and before. Then I started getting involved in high school and that changed. I wonder what my MBT would have been had I taken it when I was younger.

When I took this test again for the second time, the only letter that changed was N to S. That means that I no longer go with my instinct but consider the options. I would say this is true for my work environment, but not my social environment when there aren't a lot of things to consider. In those instances, I just go with it.

Overall, I would say the last three letters of my MBT apply to my professional life but not to my social life. Except for the J, I hate structure regardless.

1. Think about your gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, special abilities or disabilities, age, socioeconomic status, religion, birth order and any other influences that come to mind.  How have these factors influenced your personality and learning preferences?

I am a male, Indian, straight, 21, middle class, Hindu student. I have a younger brother, so I was usually the guinea pig when it came to a lot of things such as applying for a 4 year university since my parents are from India. I never really thought about how these things influenced my personality or learning preferences until the first time I did this activity. Here are some of the things I realized:

1. Being Indian, you don't think you have a lot of career choices. It is a stereotype, but it is also true that most of the Indian people I know are either engineers or doctors. I am terrible at calculus so I knew I wouldn't want to do engineering but I did like to help people so I came to college thinking I wanted to be a eye doctor. Now that I think about it, the only reason I made that decision was because I wanted to please my parents with that choice and because doctors get paid well. When I was looking around at other majors, for the longest time I thought I had to pick something in the school of rehabilitation sciences. After getting into the Health Information and Management Systems program as well as the Athletic Training program, I realized nah I am a better fit for business. 

Other ethnicity can pick whatever they want and while Indian Americans can also, sometimes I feel like we are pigeon holed to believing we dont. I'm glad I realized my true passions earlier than later. 

2. When I think about it, the other factors of my personality don't really influence me. They can be used to describe me but I don't act differently because I am a male or Hindu and I don't learn things differently because I am straight or from a middle class family. I can understand how it may effect other people, but it isn't something I pay much attention to.


Write your own personal mission statement. What is your purpose in life? What values are important to you ? What do you want to be? What attributes and capabilities are important to you?

I want to live a life that is measured by the impact I leave for others. I want to work in a job that has a meaningful contribution to society and will put me in a position to positively be a role model for others. I am majoring in finance, but I dont want to spend my entire career working for a bank or on Wall Street. I want to help and lead a company that helps others, such as one in the healthcare industry. Eventually I want to use my experiences to bring me back to Ohio State to continue to help more lives. 

Tony Dungy, Finding Your Inner Strength, Your Quiet Strength

Towards the end of my junior year of high school, I saw a book by former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy at Meijers. I was waiting for my mom and had heard great things about how much of a class act Dungy was. So picked up the book and looked through it.

Some background- for one of my birthdays (sometime before 4th grade) an aunt of mine had bought me a Colts windbreaker. I didn't follow the NFL at that time but thought the jacket was sweet. I was wearing it in 5th grade when people asked me if I was cheering for them in the playoffs. I think that was when I realized that the Colts were an actual team. Long story short, I started watching the NFL and I have liked the Colts in addition to the Bengals because they got me into football. And Peyton Manning is the greatest.

So I picked up the book and skimmed the chapter about the game when the Colts finally beat the Patriots to go to the Super Bowl. It was a really good game and I relived it as I flipped through those pages. Then I looked at the other chapters in the book. I realized it was more than just football. Dungy talks about his experiences with coaching, the lessons he has learned, his life's ups and downs, and his religion. All of these were ways he drew from his Quiet Strength.

I checked out the book from the library and read it through the summer going into my senior year of high school. My senior year had placed me in a few leadership roles; President of Key Club, Student Council Treasurer, National Honor Society Blood Drive Chair, Relay For Life Captain. I think at that point I was just thinking about getting things done. I know now that doing what you're supposed to get done isn't leadership, it's expected. I learned from that book that leadership meant more than just that. Reaching out to people, trying to make an impact, being a role model, and above all using your position as a platform to help others.

Dungy also used football as an example for life lessons. Being the dork I am, I take notes on books I really like. So here are the top 10 things I learned from his book "Quiet Strength":

1. "This book isn't about football. Winning the Super Bowl isn't the ultimate goal in life. Its about the journey- mine and yours- and the lives we can touch, the legacy we can leave, and the world we can change for the better"

2. "Things will go wrong at times. You shouldn't let external issues be a hindrance. You can't always control the circumstances, but you can control your attitude, approach, and response. Your options are to complain or to look ahead and figure out how to make the situation better. Anger is just wasted emotions because nothing productive comes out of it. Just like in a game, there is no time to think about the mistakes about the last play because you have to be ready for the next down"

3. In the book Dungy talked about many of his failures or obstacles; his high school coach being fired due to race, him not playing quarterback in the B1G because of his race, not getting drafted, being fired from head coach of Tampa Bay. After the last incident, he wrote "We often cant see what god is doing in our lives, but God sees the whole picture and His plan for us clearly"

4. "Be on time, being late means either its not important to you or you cant be relied on."

5. "Success is defined by significance. The significant difference your life makes on someone else"

6. "God has created you in a certain way, with certain interests and passions. Follow your passions."

7. One year, everyone was talking about the Patriots. The week before the game, Dungy made this comparison: "Why are McDonalds fries good? Because they are consistent. Fries in New England are just as good as fries in Dallas. McDonalds doesn't change because it is in New England. We need to be the same, we need to be consistent and do what we do. Don't change your approach because the situation is different. Champions do the ordinary, extraordinarily."

8. Dungy talked about the positives that came from his sons suicide. He received letters from organ recipients that could now see and live normally. He received a letter from a dad who had watched the funeral and Dungy's speech about spending time with your family and those that are important to you. The dad started spending more time with his son. Positives that come from tragedies.

9. "Our past prepares us for the future if we allow it too. We are provided opportunities to learn from things that have happened to us."

10. "Never lose sight of your purpose. We are all role models to someone in this world, and we can all have an impact for good"

These are some of the lessons I learned early in my senior year. I think they had an impact on me and my style and approach to the leadership positions I was given.

So. Are you playing to win the Super Bowl, or to make the Journey one to remember?