A Message for Leaders

I've been involved in an organization called Peel Students Presidents' Coucil (PSPC) ever since I attended their conference, Odyssey '07, last year.

It was such an amazing experience, and I recently returned from the Compass '08 conference this year (yes, it's an annual thing).

Inbetween the games, the cheers, the sessions, the people, and the overall insanity of it all, a few thoughts occurred to me. Perhaps it was because of the larger role of leadership I had to take on in planning the conference, but really, it's not about the conferences. It's about the steps that we, as the next generation, must take.

Interesting, what get's scrawled onto the back of napkins during a last dinner together, amidst the tears and the laughter...

Student leadership is at an all time low.

A lot of us have been running on empty, navigating through the schools halls, with the same routine, over and over and over, day after day...
And many of us have forgotten what its like to care about each other.
We now live in an education system that bombards us with enough work to crush each of us through endless stress and pressure to make ends meet which makes it hard for us to sit back, relax, think and care about others the way we all should. We now live in a world that thrives on the uneasiness of fear and tension and doubt, where even a kind gesture could be seen as the enemy.

"Human-cruel or humankind?"

PSPC is not just 4 intense days at a camp, PSPC is a year long-life long intitative.
The Peel Student Presidents' Council has been trying to unify the students of Peel into a family; a "we". For almost a decade PSPC has been spreading the knowledge, running initiatives and running workshops to remind students that they are all in this together, and that in order to assure students are treated fairly, justly and with care we must be involved with our schools, with every level of Peel, from the student governments to the principals to the trustees.

PSPC is the liaison between students and the Peel board of education. making every school voice heard so that steps can be taken and turn the student bodies of peel into the driving influence of Peel.

"Turn your passion into action."

Be leadership aware, be politically aware, be socially aware.... We are all capable of so much, if we choose to care. If 4-5 years is what is asked of us in High School, its only fair to say that we'd like to spend those years on our terms.

Be the change.

"Turn the me into we."

Theres no reason why we shouldn't talk to each other like warm fuzzies all the time,
Theres no reason why you should sit back and let your high school experience ruin itself because of inaction.
Take the time to know whats going on in your schools, with Peel and with PSPC.

"Be the compass, for all the lost. Find a direction, and sail true."

This may not make complete sense to you, but take from it the idea that it represents.
And for those who do understand...

Compass 2008 <3
Sail true in your paths. I love and miss you all.