I found the class we had on leadership to be very interesting. When he first said that he had seen all of his strengths lined up best to worst, I was curious what my bottom ones were. But then he said that the reason you are unable to see them all it was because that is where everyone looks first. Everyone is already so consumed with their weaknesses and on improving them even if it is not something that comes naturally. And to be 100% honest, I did not first believe him about improving something you’re already good at instead of working at something that you are less inclined in. I mean why should you? You are already good. Then eureka! Sure you may be good at it, but you’re not at your full capacity. Just imagining all the things that are possible if you just coax and work on your own strengths you could be the best.
My top five strengths in order from the most to least are Developer, Input, Adaptability, Arranger, and Empathy. An example of Developer would be my time as a Project TRUST counselor. Project TRUST is a camp for middle schoolers to recognize and deal with bullies. They learn the consequences of words and what can happen and they learn that the value of a person is not determined based on what they look like. My job as a counselor was to help them and point them in the right direction of actions. To do that we first separated them into a bunch of groups of people who may or may not have ever interacted with each other and we talked. About our fears and our dreams and our hopes and so on. We led by example, talking of our own personal experiences and then allowing them to share. Everyone has a fear, none less than the other.
An example of the strength Input was back in my underclassmen years of high school. I would never describe myself as shy, just as someone who is more comfortable listening and observing than talking and displaying. Because of this I gathered a lot of information about my fellow classmates and when one of my close friends got close with a former flame that had turned down a dark path, I knew that nothing good would be able to come out of this relationship. I did not want to be un-supportive and what not but I couldn’t not tell her what I knew right? So I did, I reminded her of why they broke up in the first place and what he had become of since then. (Not because of her though). He started doing not just harmless drugs but the serious, could be deadly drugs and drinking an unhealthy amount of alcohol all the time. She thanked me but then tried to “fix” him. They can’t be “fixed” though, if they are going to change it has to be for themselves and no one else, so needless to say her efforts were in vain and he got a little aggressive at her attempts to change him. So, I’m not sure if this is a good example of this strength but it is the first thing that popped in my head and I thought it was important to acknowledge that.
A last example of the trait Adaptability came senior year when I was cast into the play “Don’t Drink the Water”. First of all, my casting was a complete shock and I definitely never expected it to happen. But it happened because of the callbacks? I guess you would call them. A rather large group of us were to come back to the school later and perform in some line reading and acting. When we got there and started our reading she would start throwing things and tell us to pretend we were in a war (the setting of the play). Or she had us switch roles in the middle of the scene, or give us a certain emotion to encompass while reading. And shockingly I excelled at that. I was good enough at least that I was cast into the play and given more lines than the play actually called for. But then, show night came and the main actors had some seriously fast costume changes and sometimes would not be able to make their entrances in time so the actors already on the stage would have to improvise. The one scene I actually improvised in, I was congratulated by the director herself because 1. Nobody noticed that that was not supposed to happen, and 2. It was funny.