The Amazing Erin Gruwell

In the movie Freedom Writers, Erin Gruwell is a brand new teacher in a school that has begun a voluntary integration program. She doesn't yet understand the dynamics of the students and their complex lives...but it doesn't take her long to figure it out, and when she does she decides that she wants to be the one to make a positive impact in their lives. She wants to show the students that people care about them and want to help them get an education. She doesn't have any cooperation from any of the other staff as they think that the students aren't worth their time or their effort. But Erin is determined. She takes on two other jobs so that she can buy the students books and supplies and she pretty much dedicates her life to her class. She figures out what makes them tick...what makes them happy, what makes them sad, what makes them motivated. She uses this to get past their initial arrogance and despite for her and reach their emotions to bring them all to a place of understanding and friendship throughout the entire group.
I thought Erin's story was incredibly inspiring and I think it really challenges us to not judge people just by how they look. She was able too see past the kids' colours and races and even past their attitudes and in doing so she was able to connect with them and change their lives for the better. So how amazing would it be if we all took the time to get to know people before judging them. I can't even imagine the impact we could have on the people around us if we could accept them for who they are as a person instead of looking only at their race, religion, clothing, social status, etc. Personally and as a leadership class I think that is something we should all strive for and it would be such an easy way to make a difference in our community and in our world, because who doesn't want to be accepted?

"The Last Lecture"

I found that listening to Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" made me feel two things: one was inspired, the other was small.
I think the first one is what he wants people to feel. This man who most people never met and now never will was able to give us all INCREDIBLE advice on how to live life. He encourages people to try their best to achieve their childhood dreams and to live life to the fullest. A quote he said that really made me think was when he said that "experience is what you get when you don't get what you want". This teaches us that if we don't get it right, that doesn't mean we're a complete failure and all our work was for nothing...we got experience from it. We pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and learn from our mistakes.
One of the reasons why I think that his lecture was so effective if because, like he said, it wasn't a hypothetical "if I was going to die ad this was my last lecture, what would I say..." he was actually dieing and yet he had such enthusiasm and he had no regrets and no pity on himself. He felt that he had done the best he could and that was good enough for him. And that is something that every person on earth should aspire to. To be able to leave this world knowing that you lived a good life and that you wouldn't take back a single minute of it. That's the inspiring part.
But along with the inspiring part is what I said about feeling small. I look at someone like Randy Pausch and I see a man who in his final months of life was able to influence and challenge millions of people. So what have I done? or more importantly, what can I do? I may not be able to compare with Pausch, but I do want to make a difference in some way. I see someone who was able to embolden so many people to make change and I only wish I were working harder. So what am I going to do about it? What are WE going to do about it? Well I hope what we'll do is take his advise. I hope we'll find the courage to pursue our dreams and to make our mark in the little time we're given here on earth.

Character Development

As far as my greatest mentor goes, I don't think that it's possible for me to pick one. There have been so many people in my life who have influenced my character development that I can't actually narrow it down to one person. But I can certainly narrow it down to two: my parents. Now obviously my parents have effected my character development because they raised me and they disciplined me when I did things that were wrong, but the biggest impact they had was in just being themselves. Every kid copies what adults do, and I was fortunate to have some pretty amazing role models.
One thing that's always stood out to me is that they both showed me to be strong in everything I do. I've seen them in pain and bad health and yet no one would ever be able to guess because they carry on with their commitments with just as much enthusiasm and effort because they see that what they do is helping others and nothing could ever make them give that up. They've stood their ground when fighting for a cause or an idea and they always keep a positive attitude, no matter how full their plate is. I've seen that if you keep at it and give it your best shot, you'll be far happier and a lot more likely to succeed that if you give up when to going gets tough.
They've also shown me just how far kindness can go. Even when they weren't in the best financial situation, they would always be there to offer what support they could to someone who needed it. They could be having the most stressful week imaginable and yet they would be the first to take someone out for lunch who just needed someone to talk to and to comfort them. They both just have such a heart for people and I can tell that it really makes them happy and I want to be able to do the same.
One last thing that my mom and dad have taught me is to trust my gut. If I have a feeling that I'm doing the right thing, then that's what I need to be doing. They've shown me that you can't expect other people to tell you what to do all the time. You need to stand up for what YOU believe in and (as corny and cliche as this sounds) you just have to follow your heart, because if you are honest and compassionate it will lead you in the right direction every time. I've learned from their example that you have to speak up against what you think is wrong and try to make a difference in the best way that you can.
There are so many other valuable life lessons that I've learned from my parents, but those are a few of the ones that I felt are really important. One thing I have witnessed from my parents that I haven't quite been able to apply yet is that you have to have courage. Courage to implement all of those lessons so that your life can be a shining example to others, just like my parents were to me.

Mingas...

So what exactly is a minga? I must say I had never heard of a minga before reading this story. What I learned is that a minga is basically a call to action. It means a community coming together to work for the benefit of all, and that is what the volunteer team in Ecuador experienced. They saw that the people there were willing to stop everything they were doing and come to work together for the good of everyone. And do you want to know the sad thing? We don't even have a word for that in the English language. It's said that language reflects culture. The more words you have for something, the more important it is. So what does that say about North America? Could you even imagine how amazing it would be if we had mingas?!?! Just picture all the 11000 people in Ingersoll coming together to help each other out for the sole purpose that they were asked to? Just because they want to help other people out? And that's just Ingersoll!!! Imagine things like that happening all over the continent! So if you want to know whether or not we should have mingas and if it would be beneficial, that's kind of a no brainer. Of course we should, but the question is would people actually do it? Not with the way our world is now...but that's what Me to We is all about right? It will take a lot of work, but we need to change people's mind set so that we can all help each other for the greater good, just like the tribal people in Ecuador. If it works for them, why can't it work for us?

Community Adventure

I think that this "community adventure" thing was a brilliant idea! Not only did we have a lot of fun walking around town but we got the chance to spread the word on Me to We. We had just the right amount of time to get to all of our assigned destinations and all of them seemed happy to be able to support our cause. This was a great way to make people aware and to encourage them to get invloved. This way the community will see that we are really commited to this and the posters are EVERYWHERE so there's no way people can miss them. All in all I think that our community adventure was a huge success, not just for my group but for all of them....WAY TO BE GUYS!

Me to We at IDCI

Since I wasn't able to attend either of the Me to We assemblies, this blog is just an overall personal though on IDCI's Me to We project. First of all I think it's one of the best things this school has ever decided to do and I'd like to extend kudos to whoever suggested it. In the world we live in today people are so consumed with themselves and we forget that there are other people out their who could really use our help, and IDCI has realized that and decided that instead of standing aside and saying "awe poor them, that's really too bad... blah blah blah" we're going to take a stand for them and try to make a difference. I also really like the choice of country. Sierra Leone is in so much need right now and they can use all the help they can get. I feel honoured to be able to be a part of helping children in that impoverished country get an education, and hopefully, if more money can be raised, we can give them even more than just a school. I think IDCI is doing really well with this project and we need to just keep doing what we're doing and get as many people as possible involved. So ya...SPREAD THE WORD!

Suicide Awareness Assembly

I'm not going to lie, when I heard that our class was going to a forum theatre on suicide awareness, I was sure it was going to be a complete corny flop.....man was I ever wrong. The play was extremely well performed and the message was put forth clearly, but not so clearly that it was insulting our intelligence (like some of the forum theatres I've seen). I could tell that a lot of hard work had gone into the whole thing. The way the situation was portrayed was really effective and they did a good job of identifying what to look for and how we, as students, can help. I was glad to see that people were taking it seriously for the most part and that students were really interested in making a difference. The ONLY thing that I didn't like about it was the talk afterwards. Let me just say first that it was a really great idea and I liked what they had planned as far as asking AND answering questions, but what I didn't like was that whenever a question was asked that didn't quite fit what they were trying to teach us, it was sort of averted and forgotten. I heard some really great questions that would have been really useful to have answered, but since they didn't go along with the "plan" they were never actually answered. So that was one thing that could have used some work, but other than that I would give the whole thing two thumbs up and I think it would incredibly useful to do something similar with larger (or just more) audiences.

Tim's Story

Reading Tim Lefens' story, I actually found myself gaping at how much a persons life can change from just one moment. Tim was a completely self-absorbed person, doing everything for himself, just the way HE wanted to do it. He was a painter in New York, getting pretty well known, and as he puts it he was "King of the World" living in total freedom and total celebration. But one day he was asked by a friend to show his paintings to some students in a school. Well this school turned out to be more of a hospital for the severely disabled. And something profound happened to Tim that day. As he was setting up for his presentation, he noticed something as he met the gaze of some of the patients there. These were real people with real life and energy! They had characters and personalities, but the ones who took care of them weren't able to see past their disabilities and realize that these people were trapped and all the wanted was some kind of escape. So Tim began to consume his time thinking of a way to help them express themselves. At first it just meant rolling their wheelchairs through paint an onto a canvas, but soon after Tim came up with a brilliant idea. The patients would be equipped with a headband that had a laser on it that they could point to where they wanted the paint to go, and an assistant would interpret and paint for them. The paintings began to be shown in galleries in NY and sold for thousands of dollars. So not only is this an incredible story of how the patients were helped and how they were finally given a chance to be expressive, but more importantly it's about how the We mentality can take hold of a persons life and change them for the better. Its about how satisfying it is to be able to help other people in need without expecting anything in return. Tim realized that and he decided to take action and use his resources to help better the lives of complete strangers. So much can be learned from that, especially from a leadership class like ours that is just looking for ways to help out. Tim's example can also show us to be sensitive to other people's circumstance and to care for and respect them, no matter what.

The World Values Survey....and Happiness

The happiest countries in the world:

1. Nigeria
2. Mexico
3. Venezuela
4. El Salvador

16. USA
I think that from this survey we can see that the idea people have that being self-absorbed and loaded brings true happiness is a common misconception. The countries mentioned on the top of this list are some of the poorest in the world, and yet they are the happiest. Well how does that work? You can't be happy without money. You can't be happy without "stuff". Right? Wrong. You can be happy with almost nothing, and the people in countries like Nigeria, Mexico, Venezuela, and El Salvador are living, breathing examples of that. If you look at their lives, they have such close knit communities and such a love and kindness and care toward each other that they don't need anything else. They spend all their time helping each other out and REALLY living instead of complaining about what they don't have and wanting what others have. They are happy with life itself and that's good enough for them. We should try it sometime....

90% ignored him....

When a group of christians were in a rush and were faced with the decision of whether to stop and help a hurt man lying on the ground, or step over him and continue on their way, 90% of them acted as if he wasn' even there. Oddly enough they were on their way to teach a lecture on the parable of the Good Samaritan. So is it significant that only 10% of the students took the time to help someone in need? OF COURSE IT IS!!!! People in our world today are so caught up in looking out for themselves that it's as if they are completely blinded to all the terrible things that are happening to people around the world or even right beside them. They've all gotten fixed up in the Me mentality that we as a leadership class are trying so hard to break away from. If you think about the story as a representation of the world, that means that only 10% of 6.7 billion people care about the other people around them. How pathetic is that? We need to put all of our efforts into changing the mentality of that 90% from Me to We. We need to be like that 10% who, despite the pressures they were facing, they made a decision to reach out to someone in need. With one simple act of kindness, they took a stand for their ideals. That needs to be us and that 10% need to grow and spread and push back the lifelstyle of self-centeredness and vanity until we no longer look around us and see people lying on the street in need of help with noone even giving them a second look. And ya, thats going to be really, insanely hard, but it will all be worth it in the end.