At the end of my Junior year in college, I joined Sigma Tau Delta (Sigma for short), the English Honor Society on my college campus. I joined the group because I thought it would look good on resumes but also because I really thought it would be a way to connect with other students that had similar interests. When I went into my senior year of college, I was actually able to participate in all of the things that Sigma actually did. We participated in a food drive over the Thanksgiving holiday for House of Peace, hosted bake sales and book sales, yet we didn't do much as a group outside of the school setting. When my senior year came to an end, the current co-presidents of Sigma were both graduating and that meant that Sigma needed two more co-presidents.
Although it was my senior year in college, I was not anywhere near graduating and somehow got talked into becoming one of the new co-presidents of the group. I agreed to take on the position as long as my friend in the group would be the other co-president; luckily, he agreed. Going into my fifth year in college, I had so many ideas and plans to revamp Sigma into a group that did more together outside of the school setting and had a little bit more fun; not that we didn't have fun before but increase it.
We decided to have game nights during the semester and have meetings more frequently than we had in the past. We even did a Secret Santa gathering at the end of the semester to celebrate all of the hard work we had accomplished. It truly felt like we were a big family over the course of the semester. Yet, being the co-president of an English Honor Society is not all that its cracked up to be. There are some struggles that come with the title, but there are still the rewards that come with it as well. As I've carried the title for a little over a half year now, I have come to realize what each of them are.
Some of the struggles that I constantly come in contact with are the few members that never want to participate in anything, the lack of communication among members sometimes and the constant worry that we aren't going to achieve all of the goals we had set out for in the beginning. I understand that when you're in college you're busy, I get that. I'm a college student as well, but I chose to join this organization and chose to put some of my time into it. When I see other people that have made the same choice as me but then never show up to meetings or Sigma events, it gets frustrating because there is very little that you can do to make them participate.
On the other side, I do understand that school comes first and that sometimes people have other things they need to do, but that's where email or texting come into play. I'm more than willing to accept the fact that people have other things going on if they are upfront with me about it and communicate with me, but I rarely get that, and it gets frustrating that some people can be inconsiderate.
Lastly, kind of putting the last two struggles together, I'm always worried that the plans we make for Sigma at the beginning of the semester are going to fall through because we either don't have enough people to participate in them or we didn't get enough time to plan them properly because of the lack of communication. I know sometimes that we make plans that are a tall order to get done in one semester, but all I'm really looking for is that we all make an effort toward the goal and got as far as we could in the given amount of time.
On the up side, I'm rewarded by being the co-president of this honor society in many ways. I've finally found a place where I can put my somewhat lacking leadership skills to the test and improve them. I've gotten to work with an amazing co-president this past semester and a half and will continue working with him until he graduates in May. I will still be in school next year, so my reign as co-president will live on, and I will get to test my leadership skills again, this time with a different co-president, but I think he too will make a great one.
I've made several new friends as well from taking on this role, and I don't think I would change that for anything. I've gotten to work closely with one of my favorite professors on campus, and that in and of itself is reward enough. I've gotten to learn a lot more about the organization of Sigma Tau Delta and that has enriched me with a lot of knowledge I hadn't known before.
I think that even with the struggles of leading a particular group, whether that be an organization like Sigma or any other organization out there, there are always going to be the rewards that make you happy in the end, and I think I have found those rewards with this group.
