Sophomore Year High School
"Pass
the joint Enrique you are taking too long!" Ruben would yell at me.
Coughing up my lungs, I would pass the joint. Ruben the
supplier, Michael the jock, Eric the quarterback, a couple others and
myself, the goodie good, would find different spots to smoke after
school: cars, peoples backyards, even the school bathrooms. Looking back
at it all seems like a blurr... maybe because I was high! Day-in and
day-out I gave into the ridiculous notion that I was "Cool," "Accepted,"
shoot I even thought I was cared about. But none of those things where
the case. I had no vision, I had no sense of purpose. My leadership
switch was "off."
At
home I had a great situation going, my parents loved me, and provided
me with tools to get ahead in life (AKA discipline). I had two brothers
who were super dang smart! My older brother was the first to attend
college, my younger brother went on to be president of our high school!
Then you had me, the punk middle child, who has a defensive problem and
that gets mad for the dumbest things. Oh and I hung out with not the
best people. What was I doing? The motivational speaker, entrepreneur Jim Rohn said,
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with."
Mr. Rohn hit the nail on the head, I was that average person!
What Mr. Rohn says carries a lot of truth and should not be taken
lightly. If you would have asked me who my friends where sophomore year
of high school, I would have told you a hand full of names. But for the
most part, you would have gotten the idea that I was one of those kids
in high school that gets high and is decent at sports. Wow, what a
leader! I think its safe to say we all go through some kind of stage
that we are not proud of. The hope is that we come out the other side,
or come to Jesus at some point. For me it was more like a "learn from
Jesus moment."
Learning From Jesus
Jesus,
my older older brother, came home with his college acceptance letter.
St Lawrence University, in Canton New York. "Dang son you up in the big
leagues now!" I exclaimed. No man, its just a good thing someone
accepted me, he replied. My mom crying in the background. My dad
holding the letter in his hand as if it were gold.
Things
got real for my family, all of a sudden we had the first Ruiz going to
college. My father who obtained an 8th grade education, and my mother
who finished high school, where both in the room filled with joy. Tears
ran down my mothers face, and my dad had a calm spirit of joy. This was
great, this was the American dream becoming real. And, I'm over here
getting high with a bunch of people who don't give two bananas about me!
Talk about getting some perspective. That night I checked out St.
Lawrence online. I was in aw! As I checked out the site, I thought to
myself,
"Will
I go to college?
What will I study?
What the hell am I doing to get
into college?
I wonder if Esteban (my younger brother) will look up to
me if I don't go to college?"
Flipping The Switch
In that moment I was convicted to be better. I did not know at the time
that being Convicted to be a better leader, is a feeling that is
parallel to the feeling of being in trouble, or feeling scared. You
can't just sit there, you have to move, you have to change. Ever since
Jesus got accepted into college, I knew that I had to get things on
track. I knew I had to set a good example for my younger brother. My
Leadership switch clicked ON! We all deal with the pressures of being
cool and being accepted. The thing that leaders should keep in mind is
that, your best self is yourself. And that you should surround yourself
with people who bring the best out of you.
- Can you look back to a time where you made a choice to be better?
- Can you look back at a time where you switched your leadership switch to ON?
- What did that look like?
- How did that feel?
I would love for you to go to my facebook page to share with me your answer to the question above.
Thanks for reading!
Remember Leadership Matters
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