When we had our first retreat in Westin Hotel, I could never forget the passion and the unity that 2013 batch showed to us. Now, 2014 batch finally made it! Before this semester’s Honors College course, being classmates with each other doesn’t actually brings out my belongings and love about this group. In this class, there are silent and shy students that we rarely talk with or listen to them. There are also active Macao local students talking in Cantonese which we feel difficult to join in. To some extent, we are labeled as 2014 batch Honors College student while separate into several independent groups with diverse identity. With no difference to other classes, we could still cooperate and communicate with each other in order to finish a project or other assignments. It is very strange that there is something missing. The connections between us disappear after the class and after the semester end. Now, this connection is becoming so strong that even though we are not in the same city, we still miss each other from heart.
Life begins when your comfort zone ends. Our journey of leadership starts when we are standing at the highest place of Macao Tower. With the freezing weather and the very challenging place, walking and doing some creative pose seems difficult for some of us because of height phobia. At that time, encouragement and comfort is especially useful and important in order to cultivate unity for a group. Fear and scare could be eliminated though even one word and one hand from other people. From that moment on, we are not independent individuals. On the edge of the Macao Tower, we transfer warmth and bravery to each other. All at a sudden, everyone is correlated with each other. Care about others’ feeling is the most important lesson that I learnt from the beginning of the journey. To be a good leader and communicator, instead of being a dictator, you have to care whether other people are comfortable with your decisions or tasks. It is vital that we should be aware that we are a group which is also the purpose of arranging this Macao Tower Activity as our first outdoor activity. If one person in the group can’t move on, others have to help him or her to go over his or hers fear and concern.
Discovering new and potential talent and utilize them wisely have always been the theme of the Honors College 2014. The audience from the talent show, the participants in the workshop and the classmates who perform in the class are all observers for our growth all along with the journey. I believe that all of our HC 2014 classmates believe that this class is a happy and relax class. It is known to everyone that Google is famous for its relax and creative environment so that their engineers could develop that much software. The classroom in J-building could also be regarded as the cradle that breeds our talents. Everyone plays both the role of performer and audience. There will never be any judgment for your performance. Eyes are for appreciation and enjoyment which exploits more opportunities for us to enjoy those hiding talents behind everyone. Some people could be good singer, dancer, actor or even composer. Other people could be a stage designer, controller of the light and screen and even the event planner. Talent show had been a mission impossible for everyone because of the tight schedule and intense attack of exams. Fortunately, everyone sacrifice their sleep time, spare time and revision time in exchange for a big and successful show. We grow up in the process of comprise, sacrifice and teamwork. Our cooperation is successful not only because our organization and planning but also should be attribute to our strong friendship of caring each other. I would say that talent show is a milestone for everyone. Compared with Talent show, the “Live to Serve” workshop seems not to be that difficult and challenging while it still needs everyone’s effort for contribution and promotion. This workshop rekindles everyone’s memory of applying for the Honors College. I remembered that I was attracted by the ideology of Honors College because of the touching and fabulous workshop held by the 2013 batch. Being a good role model with enough confident and passion is the image that we want to spread in that workshop. There is one old saying goes, today I am proud of being a member of the Honors College. Honors College will be proud of me in the future.
Sharing has been the tradition and culture in our HC 2014’s family. Writing blogs and chatting on Facebook HONR202 group are two main channels for us to know what happens in everyone’s life. For me, writing blogs could be a method to release pressure while it could also be a way to improve my writing skills. It is also very beneficial for my classmates to know about my life as an accounting student. Reading other people’s life story could create more topics and connections between each other. It could also be a proof that there are friends around you that sharing your happiness and sadness. Although HC 2014 has class every week, for the majority of time in the campus, we are still separate with each other. Showing that we are there is important. Sometimes, Dr. UDani will post some videos, or a sentence for us to fill such as “Friday is a day___?” You will see our lovely classmates’ comments like“Friday is a day for thanks! “ Those response and “like” icon at least could be an evidence that everyone is not far away from this family. Because of this sharing tradition, our social network is enlarged and more interesting activities are open to us. As one of our classmates writes in her blog about the “misconception about students in Honors College”, those outdoor activities and the lovely LEAP activity we designed for the whole campus could totally change their wrong perception about us. Because of the new flat of communicating, we are invited to dragon boat with the Dragon Boat Team of our university. We are also invited to participate in each group’s LEAP project such as “speaking out your wishes” or “Hot Chocolate” and “Sweet Postman”. I believe that every HC member had been asked such a question: What is leadership?” Dr. Udani told us that leadership is about influence. The journey of leadership tell me that sharing could be the most effective way to bring influence to other people.
Caring, Showing and Sharing are three key elements I got from this leadership journey with HC 2014 family. There is a song that we sing under the Macao Tower and the talent show as well. The lyrics are so good and suitable to sum up for my story. You raise me up to more than I can be. The journey of being a leader will never end. Every shoulder and hand in this long way could be our motivation and driving force to move on and be stronger.
HC 2014 will become a legend for everyone! We are on fire every minute and everywhere!
