Why A Talent Is Also a Responsibility
Growing up, I treated talent as something to be proud of: something unique in you, something that separates you from everybody else. But then, I got through high school and realized that with great talent comes great responsibility. I learned this from being a class representative and a student council member, whereby I was under pressure to lead my fellow students and articulate their opinions. With time, however, I came to realize that such positions were not about me, my aspirations, or my growth but all about listening, understanding, and making decisions in the interest of all. All my capabilities had put me in a strong position to help and fulfill the needs and necessities of all my classmates.
As I completed my last year of school, I had to arrange a fundraiser for the food bank in my community. This turned out to be an opportunity that would help me understand the deeper meaning of leadership. At that time, I did not consider it an attempt to show my ability to organize anything but rather a call to all of my classmates to get involved with something that would benefit us all. After a few weeks of preparation, I looked for volunteers to help me achieve what was needed in order to make this event successful. When the problems cropped up, it suddenly dawned on me that people expected me to deliver. Through leading this project, I discovered I have leadership skills not as a mere asset for me or as a hobby but as a call to change.
The second and far more significant lesson I learned in this scenario is that leadership also implies certain responsibilities. In a somewhat visible position, many of my other classmates turned to me for answers and remedies when things could not go as planned. I took the initiative, for example, in our fundraiser, finding myself in a gap due to a lack of volunteers by enlisting even more students and some of my teachers. Through all this, I came to learn that my talents can be useful in the field of leadership. Therefore, I chose to use my leadership skills to assist my people and counter any challenge that might come before me. This view is going to be of paramount importance during the college years.
Viewed from this perspective, I am even more interested in refining these skills within a challenging academic environment that upholds values of integrity, empathy, and ethics in leadership. I also look forward with anticipation to gaining an in-depth insight into what it would take to lead and manage with a balanced sense of personal success and the well-being of others. These experiences have taught me that real leadership translates into lots of consideration of the thoughts and needs of the group, a lesson I am committed to carrying forward in every endeavor. Talent, from my viewpoint on leadership, is not a personal asset but rather quite the opposite, shared responsibility. In the future, I want to continue building upon this knowledge. I realize that every opportunity to lead comes with a responsibility to inspire the people around me. This will involve me using my talent for organization and coordination for the better good. Ultimately, in my opinion, I believe that leadership is not just an ability but an individual commitment to rely on one's talents and gifts to be a responsible member of society.
