In Awe

Today was the first day of project pitches in our Team Leadership class. To be honest, I was looking forward to the 80-minute reprieve from active thinking, but this wasn't at all what I experienced.

Instead, I found myself leaning forward in my seat, watching each of my friends walk up to the front of the room and pitch a proposal for something that they found passion in. For many of them, their expressions changed, their voices grew earnest, and their obvious interest in the topic at hand was inspiring. Many of them spoke of purposes that I had an interest in: girls' empowerment, depression and anxiety counseling, cancer patient support, and the opportunity to bring our valuable business school knowledge to the entire student body.

Although I already knew my friends were great-- after all, we'd spent a year together in class and I knew how driven and intelligent we all were-- it was incredible to see that each of them had a passion beyond their personal success. For some of us, this passion is outward. Jim, for instance, makes it clear (on a daily basis, if not hourly) that he devotes much of his life to countless efforts to improve the lifestyle of people in the Fort Worth community.

However, for many of us, we take time to talk about our dreams for ourselves and our careers, our recent accomplishments, and the accomplishments of our peers. My mom tends to blame that on my generation for being "selfish", but sometimes I just think we've entered a "dog-eat-dog" world and it's up to us to make ourselves valuable enough to survive the academic and professional rat race.

Therefore, when I saw my peers stand before us to explain how they wanted to spend the next year, I was in awe of their individual passions and have complete faith in all of them to fulfill their goals. Like I said, I already know that they're smart, driven, and success-oriented. So I had no doubt in my mind that, for instance, Michael will impact the lives of nearly 30 non-business majors with his leadership program proposal.

I'm passionate about my idea, because for someone who isn't particularly community service-oriented, animal rights has always gotten me fired up. I'd love to see more of my friends and the Fort Worth community adopt animals rather than buying them from breeders, because it pains me to know how many worthy dogs and cats must be put down simply because there's no more room or resources for them. That being said, there were a few other ideas out there today that I could see myself becoming passionate about as well.

Walking away from our classroom today, I had more respect for my classmates than ever before. I'm fairly attached to this group of people, but knowing what I do now-- that they are not only inwardly successful but also outwardly aware-- makes me even more proud to call them my cohort and friends. I look forward to seeing the progression of all of our legacy projects, because I know that by the end of this year, I'll be even more "obsessed" with them than I already am.