Leadership - An Experience
Dev Mukh Kaur Khalsa (Grade 11)
Amritsar, India
This last year in India was an experience I will always remember--I loved it, I hated it. It was wonderful, it was horrible. Actually, it was great. It was definitely an experience, and one that I’m very glad to have had.
When I was first made Troop Commander, I did not realize how much it involved. I have to admit, I did not expect it to be quite as hard as it was. You see, I’ve always been one of those "universal friends," someone who gets along with everyone. I wasn’t quite ready to be hated just because I was in a position of authority. I mean, I know it happens, but I didn’t really expect it to happen to me.
I learned to deal with each person on two levels--a friendly, personal level and a "I’m in charge and you had better listen to me" level. Sometimes the two got a bit mixed up.
One thing I’ve always enjoyed was calisthenics--until I had to lead it. At first it was pretty humiliating, seeing that no matter how hard I tried, I just could not get my voice loud enough for everyone to hear. Eventually I got used to it and even began to enjoy it. But then there was the day I was calling push ups for disciplinary reasons, when a fly flew straight down my throat. Now you can imagine it didn’t taste too good, but since this was one of those real serious situations, stopping was out of the question. So I just choked a bit, had my first bit of meat (!), and kept going.
A challenging moment (or should I say moments) was during the time when we were preparing a presentation for the Siri Singh Sahib and the Yatra. As I said before, I had a hard time yelling loud enough for everyone to hear my commands. Major (Siri Narangkar Singh) had to teach me how to project my voice, laughing at me all the while. This went on for three or four days, during which I would have done anything to be able to have everyone hear me, including carrying a microphone (no matter how ridiculous it would have looked). And, of course, everything worked out fine, as things tend to do, but I sure was worried.
I also feel like I got a little taste of what it must be like to be a mother. I never knew it involved so much! Eventually things like tying turbans, cleaning cupboards, braiding hair, and being called Penji became normal to me.
All in all, I’m really happy to have done what I did last year, not to say I didn’t have my bad days. But it taught me a lot about myself, about people, and about communication. It took me awhile but I finally learned how to do my job and have fun at the same time. This last year’s experience is one I know I could not have gotten anywhere else, and I would not give it up for the world.