As I reflect on my Luckyday experience, it is quite transparent that servant-leadership and the community present a tremendous role in many lives. Learning how to effortlessly communicate with many people while combining a passion for community service proved that this semester would be phenomenal. Also, it is has taught us how to perceive others above the main surface while constructing a reflection of ourselves. As I leave this class, I plan to carry the servant leadership characteristic of awareness most of the time.
While volunteering on or off campus, I feel it is important to be aware of the organization or cause one is trying to assist. It makes one observe something he or she is not familiar with, decide to step out of the comfort zone, and announce the problem and solution in a modest manner. Also, it is most important to develop self-awareness in order for your strengths to be displayed properly. At the time same one must be watchful to not overplay a strength, so it might become a weakness. We must discover the servant-leader in ourselves, which gives us the ability to make others aware about the things we care sincerely care about.
In addition to this, I will carry a deeper and a broader meaning of listening. Before I understood the definition of listening and how it portrays itself in servant leadership, I believed I was a superb listener. Often, I received an abundance of compliments about my listening skills, which is an excellent quality for communicating with other people. Robert Greenleaf stated, “Only a true natural servant automatically responds to any problem by listening first. ” The message I took away from this quote was that it is crucial to not only listen to the person, but one must be able to comprehend he words being spoken to him or her. When I engaged in a conversation with someone, I listened to what they were discussing while simultaneously pondered in mind about what | should say next. The problem with this is that I would easily lose myself in my thoughts in completely forget what the other person was discussing with me. Because of this, it resulted in an awkward and incomplete conversation. Fortunately, when I engage in conversation with someone now, I am able to give them my undivided attention, vet am aware of jumping to conclusion to carry on a conversation.
Even though these characteristics were rather simple and much enjoyable to encounter, stewardship is a characteristic that I struggle with and would like to improve this in the future. Control and time management were the two biggest factors we had while trying to accomplish my group’s service project. I understand that | must put trust in any team member to work together in harmony and to prevent any conflicts. By overcoming the struggle of adapting to stewardship, I can gain a stronger sense of working in group activities.
This creates a concern for the group or a community as a whole rather than focus on my personal needs. The biggest impact the Luckyday class had for me was the Tech Fast Day. The experience gave me a better understanding that verbal communication is more important than virtual communication. It helped me grow more as a person since it requires one to look inside himself or herself and reflect on what could be possibly perfected. During the Tech Fast experience, it was difficult to keep up with the time and to locate my friends or classmates in different locations.
On the other hand, I gained excellent and multiple servant leadership skills. Paying attention and listening is a must to tend to the need of others to have empathy. I experienced the characteristics of empathy by observing when someone was going through a rough time during the twenty-hour period, and I would give them a hug if needed. By making a schedule with my friends through conceptualization, it made us see the big picture about the day ahead. We learned more about each other’s time frames and the virtue of planning ahead.
These characteristics helped me through the Technology Fast while having an internal growth experience. After I have fully understood the characteristics of servant leadership, it was rather simple to apply them into my everyday life. One situation in which I had to apply it was a time I was experiencing conflicts with my roommate. We were very empathic to each other’s needs and wants during the conversation since we have not had much experience with confrontation. Another situation in which I applied a servant-leadership characteristic is healing.
Due to the fact that everyone on campus has upcoming final exams, most people are running around panicking or worrying about their future GPAs. I depended mostly on my healing ability to understand their worries and support them through this rough journey. Along with these examples, I view many other Luckyday people express some characteristics as well. The greatest one. examine is the support and compassion we have for each other. Since we will parting ways next fall semester, I believe this was an excellent experience for us to connect and remain connected for a long time.
Therefore, I plan to approach next semester with a more optimistic spirit and a better understanding of foresight. Going into a new experience or project, I am constantly cautious of unknown surroundings or people. Usually, it creates a brick wall outside my personality to the point that I might appear closed-minded. Now, when I approach a novel environment, I do not assume the worst or form a bias attitude. Instead, I am very polite, yet open with a diverse group or individuals. This was crucial that I corrected this behavior since that approach can carry me over into other aspects of life.
Furthermore, I plan to create a better understanding of foresight by always staying on course in order to see the beauty of my hard work in the future. I know that I have the ability to predict what I would be doing years later in college or my career; however, I am aware not to lose sight of the moments that are currently on the path to achieve my goal. For instance, I understand that it will take about six years in order for me to achieve a master’s degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology. While I dedicate time and energy towards this, I will volunteer in my community and distinguish myself from others to create a righteous reputation.
By enforcing these two approaches into each semester of my college career, I know that I can have the ability to master the servant-leadership lifestyle. From my experience in my Luckyday, it is much apparent that the servant-leadership traits are easily attainable. Greatly, I have gained a better understanding of compelling a change in other people’s lives. During my time at the University of Southern Mississippi, I plan to impel multitudes to remark that serving will not only influence obstacles ahead, but will grant everyone the opportunity to aspire to have a nature to lead a community.