Saturday, April 26, 2014

Lead On, Macduff



If I have to write ONE MORE stinking essay about why I shouldn’t have to pay thousands of dollars to go to college…
It would be easier if I could just reuse the same essay. But each college and scholarship wants something subtly different, just enough so that I have an entire folder on my computer with about 20 essays in it. And yet they all want the same thing: leadership. Readers who know me know that I am not a leader. And that just seemed to be fine and dandy until we started looking at scholarship opportunities that all wanted the overachievers who have done everything. Literally up until you start looking at college, EVERYONE emphasizes teamwork more than anything. But these guys seem to want everyone to be leaders. Every form has a space for times you’ve been a leader or held some sort of office like student president. If everyone was a leader, there would be no one left for them to lead, and where would that leave us? A bunch of obstinate, independent, overachieving people with high aspirations trying to get others to follow them.  When a group has too many leaders, and those leaders collide, heads will roll. It’s not pretty, and stuff definitely does not get done.
Maybe there could be a scholarship that rewards followership. When have you trusted someone to get you to the right place? What groups do you work or have you worked well in? It would show them how well students would get along at their college, since once you get there they probably value teamwork as much as they ever have.