Today, I was walking in the hallway to visit my choir teacher (yes, I admit: I'm a BIG music geek. Probably not the biggest, and DEFINITELY not the most talented, but I like to play music. A lot), and I met one of the teachers in charge of a science competition thingy in the hallway. I asked him a seemingly innocent question of when practice tests would be available, and it got turned on its head, suddenly becoming my fault that I lack the initiative to go seek practice tests that aren't always available in the first place!! Not to mention the fact that I don't consider myself a person who "lacks initiative"- I spend my lunches in a band room practicing mallets just so I can get better and not drag everyone else in percussion ensemble behind. And to make up for the fact that I don't personally take band class. But then, I looked at it from his standpoint- a random science teacher who hardly knows what I do and why I do it would not know these things. In fact, when he's around, I'm not always in tip-top shape when it comes to initiative- I stopped going to his "club" when I realized it was nothing but a chess and science olympiad club, neither of which I was eligible to do (well, the chess was a waste of time), and I don't always score well on the competition tests. I'm going to use this opportunity to reflect where I'm taking "initiative" and where I'm not:
Yes, I am taking initiative:
Percussion
Blogging (when I can)
Keeping up with schoolwork
No, I'm not taking initiative:
Those science tests. I really need to pick them up.
Searching for Volunteer Opportunities and actually applying for them.
Searching for an Internship
Learning Chinese
And everything else I'd say falls in the middle. So maybe, he did have a point. Just about the wrong things- just because I don't chase after one thing doesn't mean I'm a lazy bump on the log. What do YOU think about "taking initiative"?
I personally disagree with the teacher, and I think I know who you're referring to, because you take all the initiative that you do because like you said, you spend your lunch in the band room and you're juggling AP Physics, Honors English,and Honors Chemistry, and it gets a bit difficult to engage in extracurriculars when you have that much homework. Not to mention you're deciding to take Organic Chemistry over the summer. So yes, you don't volunteer every week and search for internships and everything else that guarantees you an entry into National Honors Society, but you spend your time reading up on and pursuing what you love most: science (in the science fair, that is). So you definitely do take initiative. And in general, I think that its good to take initiative, but you don't need to be so active in everything you do all the time, because its OK to sometimes take a break, like during Spring Break.
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