Lessons of Reality

Reality can bite hard. Believe me, I have a dog, who likes to bite, but life can bite much harder.

Sorry, you might not be up to speed, let me get you up to speed:

College has started once again, and SSLA has grown from being 58 students to 127. That's right! We have juniors now. They're nice, quite motivated... I've started making apocalypse plans, in anticipation of the day they decide to turn on us seniors (they outnumber us by nine people and when you add the fact that a good 15 of us don't come to college the odds start coming against us).

Now, I'm quite an active guy in college, and the new batch noticed this, in fact some of them accidentally referred to me as the 'Head' of our college which made me feel rather good about myself, after all, it's a commonly known adage that you can't buy or steal respect, you can only earn it. And there is nothing that shows that you have the respect of your peers when you can stand up and ask them to quite down and have them listen to you, even if it is only for two minutes. The feeling is unbelievable.

More importantly, it is humbling. I come from families who have done so much in their respective fields and act like it was no big deal, this kind of humility is rare now a days and it is something that I was always sure to keep an eye on. I tried my best to never brag, never show-boat, it's quite simply, not my style.

This being said, Reality can bite, and I had the first taste of that last year when I didn't get a prize I thought I was most certainly get. I had the academics, the co-curricular and the extra-curricular to win All-Rounder Student, imagine the surprise when I didn't get it. It hurt for a while, but the thought nagged me, as to why I didn't get the Award, so I decided to ask the people who gave out the award. I was given flowery words that shrouded the basic message of: "The student helped the faculty in a number of places and the entire faculty knew she was involved in various things"

My own concept of being humble had worked against me; humility meant a lack of visibility which in turn meant that those selecting All-Rounder didn't know what I had done.

So that's one bite.

The Second Bite occurred today.

My term of being on my college's Student Council is coming to a close, and as a result of that, Elections were called for, and I filed my name for the position of President and also as an ordinary Member.

Although I never really realized it, I was overconfident. I expected people to be aware of all my achievements, especially since all 127 people know who I am. I also expected that this would secure me the post of president.

When the election process was announced, I was informed that it would be a debate on a topic, I was happy, I'm a debater by nature, and I’d be in my element. Oh but how the tables switch as it became a one-minute speech (thus sort of breaching the whole concept of a debate). Not just any speech topic though, but "Why I should be President". I cringe as I write this, cause I was so against the concept of standing up and saying that I have these qualities, these awards and I promise to do this, It's not... Humble. So I stood up spoke from the heart and said that I'd be the Student's President, and that I'd be there for them.

In retrospect, the concept of the speech went against me, because one I believed it to be narcissistic in nature and more importantly, I kind of thought I was already there. To have to think of why I should be President had never crossed my mind, I had always just sort of operated on an instinctual level, doing what I thought was right. What was right for my College-mates and for my College.

I sort of just thought that I would be guaranteed President.

Again, speaking in retrospect, my speech didn't go as well as I wanted it to. In fact if I was a voter judging candidates on that speech alone, I wouldn't have voted for myself either.

Nevertheless, what was done was in the past and could not be changed. So I listened and found a candidate who spoke again from his heart and whom I knew would, if given a chance, do even better than I possibly could.

(On a side note, I'm a firm believer that people have great potential within them, that given the right situation, they can become a person who has achieved all they could.)

So when I went in to cast my vote, I didn't vote for myself, it was too selfish to do that. I was the people’s choice, then I'd get elected regardless, if I wasn't then my vote mattered and I wanted to cast it wisely.

The results were read out; I got 20 votes, and could hold my head high at the fact that a 20 people had that faith in me. The candidate I voted for didn't win, someone else did. Now here where my ego took a bruising, because I didn't see what the voters had seen, I didn't see someone who could be a good President, but I smiled and congratulated them, today was not the day to be a bitch about a democratic process. No day is ever the right day.

All I can say is that I wrote the charter that the future council will be following; I made the role of the President. Tomorrow the elections for the remaining members shall be completed and I'll know if I'm in the council at all. If I fail to get onto the council, so be it, I'm meant for better things - I shall be watching and ensuring that they do the jobs that they have to do.

I shall end this by simply saying that an Armchair General gets a fraction of the respect that a Battlefield General has. I only ever wanted to help my fellow students, if I can't do that as President, or as a Member of the Student Council, then I shall do it as an ordinary Student. Doing anything else would be an insult to who I am, where I come from, and what I stand for.

Reality has a strong bite, so be sure to never let it get the drop on you. Be Humble, Be Honest.