Leadership Dev

I was having a conversation with a friend about targeting and training future leadership in student orgs and I made an off-handed comment about how guilt tripping and obligation are "fundamental JA values" that my predecessors taught me, when I realized...that seems high oxymoronic, considering intergenerational transferrance of leadership within the Japanese American community has a reputation of being difficult at best.

In the context of student orgs that are constantly in flux....you don't have that option. Train and sustain, or die. Those are the options. It's also the line that is used in the JA community as well, but doesn't always seem to play out in practice. As someone who's now on the older end of the college org spectrum, I'm realizing how difficult it is to do what is best. Reaching out to people you don't necessarily know that well - and then entrusting them with something you've invested close to four years in - is not easy or comfortable. Getting people to understand why something is worth caring about, when many of the experiences and issues that engaged you have changed or mutated, takes a lot of effort. You have to be willing to invest time and resources into more than one possibility...and you have to be willing to let others take over your vision. In short...it's a huge leap of faith. Can I do it? Yes....but not without some effort.

Chalk this one up to one more thing that I'm glad I got to learn while still in college.