Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

I was talking about the first day of the leadership camp for the elected and appointed student council members and the officers of the recognized student organizations.

Just an aside on the groups: I was sad to see that the Paintball Club, which had expanded its retinue so as not to divide the students in the meantime and renamed itself the Extreme Sports Club, was not represented and has intentionally accepted its position as an inactive organization with the possibility of not being reaccredited for the coming school year.

But at the same time, I and several other students are relieved to see that another organization is also going the same route: a martial arts club that some suspect to be just a front for a fraternity – or to be more accurate, a street gang trying to legitimize itself while still adhering to the same principles of violence to protect its ranks from other gangs also posturing to project a tough unbeatable reputation.

It is not surprising that the so-called president of this club is the same Frank who wanted to run for student council president. All ambition, no discernable consistent impressive work or study ethic.

But back to the afternoon session: the next step in the self-awareness exercise was first writing down up to three statements on their paper “I am…” - it was the same one where their peers had listed some of their good and bad traits - about themselves, to see how well they accepted the description of others.

Then they came up with three more statements (either using the same characteristics or different ones) but this time adding a rationale as to why they think they are like that.

Next were another three statements, and continuing with “and I can be…”

The last three statements had to be appended with “but I can be…”

I found it interesting that when the facilitator emphasized the lesson of this practice by saying that no matter what other people said about them, it did not affect their “I am”, when most speakers would go with “the you that you know yourself to be” or something similar.

This segued into their own motivation for becoming student leaders and what they could offer their constituents.

At this point the facilitator admitted to his weakness for the symbolism of paper with the students’ ideas, so that he encouraged them to be creative in what they wrote and how they shaped the paper it was written in because it would be posted on the wall of thoughts along with their flags and expectations.

Some used origami to mold their papers (and still have it readable) and others cut or tore up the edges of their notes (the most common were heart and star shapes).

Session number 593 will have to end here, and I’ll pick up the story next time. For now, class dismissed. 050511 Wed.