blogging, values, and leadership?

I would like to preface by saying that I don't save all my blogging for Fridays like it seems. I read everyone's all week and thoroughly enjoy them. I think of comments in my head and I tell all the girls in my house all the funny or intellectual things that you guys write about. So I do enjoy blogging! I'm just trying to get my blogging down to a science here. I vented to Julie and Tyler for a little, I can't really tell if they feel my pain or not. But now that Sorority Recruitment is over I can kind of, maybe say that I am back to being a normal person. That being said, AEPhi has formal a week from tomorrow so the whole house is upside down scurrying for dates. Anyone down? I'll let the girls know.

I am officially done venting and I apologize! Now that all of that is behind us, we can get down to business. My values are something that define me. Throughout a lot of my classes and leadership work shops I am asked to define my top values. I can honestly say that I am lucky. I am lucky that instructors ask me to do this. It allows me to explore myself and really enable me to dig down and figure out what is really important to me and me only (for now). 

This is an important concept for everyone, not just the men and women who hold leadership positions. Everyone is a leader in their own way. When women in my chapter look to the executive board and me for the answers because we are the "leaders", I often tell them to ask themselves and ask each other. Everyone leads how they want to lead. Just being a member in a Greek house and sharing a bond with people all over the country is leadership in itself. Instead of looking to other people, you can look for the answers within yourself.

I say this because most people don't think about their values unless they are asked about it. Before I was ever asked to complete an exercise such as this one, all of my values were just a subconscious thought that I figured was only important to me. After I met with the other members of the PanHell Board we saw that most of our values overlapped. That doesn't mean we are all the same and that we will 100 percent agree with everything the other says. It simply means that our values define us and believe it or not, we are all pretty similar. We all love our families and friends and strive for growth and integrity but enjoyment as well. Its who we are and now we will all have parts of us represented to our community. Everyone in our community is a leader whether they realize it or not. Once you put Greek letters on to sit in the front row of class to raise your hand about everything the teacher says, or just to go to coffee with a new member, we are all leaders. All of our values define us and who we are. 

Lastly, I think its special that we were asked to do an exercise such as this. It will help in future, allow us to understand why one thinks the way he or she does. It will allow us to mold and change to fit our values as well other members' and the communities. It has made us aware that we are all different to some extent but at the same time we are similar in so many ways.