refused to take part in this. Instead I did yearbook and that's not very relevant but it is what happened. But anyways I went to high school and I still resented student leadership. I went through high school without doing student leadership. (I did other things though I wasn't a complete nerd.)
My sophomore year I made a really good friend and her name was Hayley Salazar and she just happened to be in ASB. But she wasn't the people I thought were in ASB and she soon became my best friend. She kept urging me to join ASB and every time I would shut her down. But somehow she convinced me to run for Junior Class President and of course I lost (I don't blame anyone I made and awful campaign video that was Disney themed and it was my first year). But even though I lost I was in the class and I became the Sprit Commissioner.
So when my sophomore year summer ended and it was time for my junior year of school to begin we had ASB orientation. And because Hayley was in executive council she wasn't with me, instead she was leading one of the stations. I don't remember a lot about this day because it was almost three years ago and I like to forget awkward situations. But I did it I made it through the awkwardness of not being friends with everyone and being shy and before I knew it, it time for school to start and I was sitting in the 2nd period ASB and again Hayley was not with me because she was in executive council meaning that she had to be in the 5th period class.
I was an awful Spirit Commissioner. I had a lot of ideas; I wanted to have a sprit couch at football games where people could buy raffle tickets and the winner got to watch the game on a couch on the track with a free pizza with a couple kids, or a spirit phone call where we call students and if they say the code word like "Go Pups" or the prom theme or something they got free stuff and I thought they were great but I never knew how to bring it up to someone. It was my first year and I was nervous. But I did do something pretty cool my junior year I wanted to have a student appreciation wall but after going to the principal and my advisor it turned into student of the month with paw prints that their names got painted on. It fell through a lot but it happens. Oh and I planned spring fling week practically by myself. At the end that awful year of awkwardness trying to do ASB I decided that I wanted to run for a senior class office. I ran for senior class secretary and this time we did speeches. I had a memorized speech where I talked about being the mascot and my pants getting stolen and some other things (but I sure don't remember the other things). And I actually thought I had a chance at being senior class secretary. A boy stopped me in the hall one I had never seen before and he told me how awesome my speech was. But I still lost. Anyways I was still in the class and I was now the Digital Communicator Commissioner. (Long name I know).
So the next year started and I was finally in an ASB Class with Hayley and I had Michael (Another really good friend but it was his first year) in my 6th period! The year still started with the ASB orientation that I still have a lot of problems with how it runs but I myself did better and felt more comfortable. And I wanted this year to be a good year. I finally realized that in ASB no one is going to tell you exactly what you are supposed to do. In addition to my "duties" as Digital Communicator which was just updating the marquee which I am the only student so far that has been trained to do so I did plenty of other stuff. For homecoming Hayley and I against the advice of most of the other ASB students painted paw prints and wrote names on them for every student that went to our high school. This was really important to me and Hayley because we saw an inspirational speaker and we were one of the only groups that got to attend his workshop and he spoke about how when schools have poor participation you have to start smaller than dress up days and dances and he showed us a school that made and hung valentines for every student and we wanted to do this for our school too. At our school we do senior nights for sports and we recognize homecoming king and queen but not everyone can be those people and it was really important to recognize everyone in our school because they are part of it and just because they don't do sports of make it to homecoming court doesn't make them any less than a person. We don't have a small high school. I painted thousands of paws with Hayley and because of the lack of support from my ASB class I took a lot home and had my family painting them. And then with a group of five kids on Sunday afternoon with a thing of fishing line we hung paw print with everyone's name on it. Lowerclassmen had black paws with red writing and the upperclassmen had red paws with black writing. And we hung every single one up by hand until it was so dark that we had to use our phone flash lights. But it was worth it because when we came to school on that Monday people were looking for theirs. And all throughout the school year I saw paw prints that I had made tucked into binders and instagram photos of them. When January rolled around we started on making pink hearts for everyone and they were hung for Valentine's day. But this time students knew what was going on. It was amazing to me because the kids that would skip class to go do drugs or just mess around in the bathrooms were instead looking for their pink hearts. But our security guard just decided to be a douche that day (whoops that just slipped out, you can tell I'm still not over this) and instead of doing his job and sending kids back to class, he tore them all down. But for once we were having people participate even though it didn't require much they were doing it. And that was amazing to see and I would paint a million more hearts and paws if it meant something to someone.
Another thing I did my senior year was Hayley and I helped plan Mr. GQ and Miss Hanford High Pageant and we hosted it. When we were first asked to host other people said we couldn't do it and that they should do it. But we did it and we were awesome if I do say so myself. And I did a lot of other things that don't need a long explanation but the point is I did them.
Finally I found my groove in ASB.
But I still didn't agree with everything that happened in ASB. In our class about 10% of the people in my class did work. (Maybe a little of an exaggeration but when you are the one to do all the work it feels like that). A lot of students in my class would love to argue about their ideas being better or to plan things and then have others do the work. But often times I would just do my work and my own thing and often when they had their meetings I would talk about it to no one as I painted a poster or programed the marquee and once in a while people would snicker. But one time someone said that we should have a Holocaust dress up day and I think I started laughing so hard that they finally looked at me. But I couldn't help it who actually thinks of that.
You're probably thinking that there isn't a point to this post and if you've made it this far you're finally going to find out. My sister just came home from CADA Camp which is a leadership camp I never went even though Hayley kept telling me I should I was nervous about asking my mom about it money wise and just being with people from ASB like that freaked me out. But anyways that is what spurred this random post. But I fell in love with ASB right at the end. I came from being a resentful 7th grader to a High School graduate who regrets not joining student leadership. I do still am frustrated with many of the things that happen in student government but I loved it because of the small group of those kids that cared and not just about Prom, Basketball games, or Rallies but truly cared for students. And my sister it telling me about CADA and I'm seeing tweets about how inspirational everything was there and how everyone was so nice and everyone participated. But the sad thing is (and I can only speak for my school and only for a couple people there) schools aren't like that. And when kids come from leadership camp and things aren't as great they get mad. They get mad because people don't care about the same things as them and they get mad because other students don't want to participate. And instead of trying to figure out what the next step is they give up.
There is no one way that student government should work. Leadership should be "custom made" for your student body. And I hated some of the things people in my leadership class said and did but I never did ASB for them I never did it to be popular I did it because I love working and helping people. And I found people that I love to work with and I loved my advisor she was amazing and very personable even though sometimes she would talk to you and then pause and walk away but hey its what high school does to you.
High school is supposed to be the best 4 years of your life and for some it just isn't and those are the people that I wanted to do stuff for.
Join Leadership. Do something because I regret that I only did it for two years. And I'm so blessed to have had a friend who showed me what good can come from being involved in our leadership class. Because it is important to try and make a difference in your school.
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