Beyond the Title

Recently, there was supposed to be an election for the new president to lead my community development association. The previous one had hinted to me that she'd like for me to take over, but I eventually stepped down when I realised that I really didn't want it. There was a similar occurrence afterwards, and that led me to have this introspective view of myself.

Years ago, when I was in my third year at the university, I vied for the position of class governor and mounted that title until our very last together as colleagues of the same department in school. At that time, I seemed like an unlikely person to go for such a position, but that didn't faze me at all—what others thought of me and my potential—and I went for it head-on.

I had specific reasons why I wanted to become class governor. I was very well qualified because I was acing my academics and had a good reputation before my lecturers, so there wasn't anything holding me back from going for it.

The thing is, we have been known for some not-so-nice things at our university. Generally, we were considered very unserious and useless students, and that was owing to our average performance as a department. I felt like I could change this with new leadership.

I wouldn't like to say that leadership is my forte, but I do realise that filling in such roles isn't much of a problem for me, especially if I get the hang of the job quickly enough. And so, with the plans I had in mind, I went on to vie with two other colleagues.

Orderliness, structure, and welfare were going to be my primary focus when I took up the mantle. I thought that by managing to make things a little more organised in my department, the names that we were often called would reduce a lot.

Being organised would be an effective liaison between my colleagues and the lectures for crucial matters, such as lecture timetables and meetings.

Things changed for the better when I became governor, and we were doing way better in our departments. Timetables were sorted out faster and more efficiently, assignments were turned in on time, and materials were often distributed properly. It was all good until it started to take a toll on me in my last few days at the university.

As time passed, I became more and more involved in many things, so much so that acting as the class governor that I was became challenging to keep up with. I told myself that I wasn't going to take on such roles anymore after that time, and that they were admittedly not easy to shoulder. For some reason, however, I find myself in the middle of it all over again.

Being in the spotlight isn't what's important for me. It is getting things running smoothly that my focus usually is. The thing that I fail to realise sometimes is that one doesn't have to be "right there at the top" to make good changes wherever they find themselves. I figured that I'd stick with just being "useful and effective" for now. That's what I'm implementing to make things easier and less discombobulating for myself.