My 2nd HOBY Essay

Empower Lead Excel

How HOBY Changed My Life in Ways I Never Thought Possible

     Purpose of Essay: I have noticed that a lot of attention and focus is given to the HOBY seminar itself, but almost no attention is given to what happens afterward.  I hope to use this essay to explore how I used what I learned at HOBY to make a difference, and how others are doing the same thing.  HOBY changed my life, so what?

     It has been my observation that the phrase “life-changing” has been used to describe such a variety of situations and events that it has become over-used and “cliché”.  Particularly among teenagers, with a warped sense of importance, the phrase “life-changing” is thrown around like a baseball at an afternoon pick-up game.  Even I have found myself guilty of using “life-changing” to describe something, such as a movie, a concert, or even a conference, when in reality, it was not.  It didn’t really change my life, or make an impact on my life; it was just thought-provoking, or really enjoyable.  By definition, the phrase “life changing” means that a life is different after an event than it was before.  An impact is made like nothing else ever has before, or ever will again.  This is what HOBY did to me.  I do not live my life the same way that I did before I experienced HOBY.  It completely and totally, absolutely and thoroughly, changed my life.

     When I first walked onto the campus of Mount St. Mary’s University that fateful day in late May, I had no idea that my life was about to be forever changed.  I had no inclination that I was going to have my long-held views of the world challenged, questioned, and changed by the seminar.  No one told me that I was going to make life-long friends that have blessed me in innumerable ways, or that I would be moved to tears on numerous occasions, whether from laughter, compassion, or such an outward display of emotion.  If someone had told me before the HOBY Seminar began that I was about to partake in the greatest weekend of my life, that would forever make an impact on my life and the lives of others, well I honestly would have laughed at this person.  Then, it happened.  I was immersed into this atmosphere of learning, caring, leadership, mentoring, service, and activism.  Being surrounded by people who are just like you, who are driven for success and have a tendency to over-achieve, really pushed me and challenged me in a way I didn’t expect.  I do believe that I grew up more and learned more about myself over the course of that three day seminar then I had throughout my entire life up until that point.  Simply put, it was the greatest weekend of my life.

     Before I knew it, it was over.  We all had to say goodbye to our newfound friends and mentors, pack up our belongings and say goodbye.  As I was saying goodbye to the place that felt like home and the people that seemed like family, I made myself a solemn vow. I promised myself when I left that I was not going to let what I learned go to waste.  I was going to keep this new found “fire” I had in my life, and not let it burn out.  As I left the conference that day, I devoted myself to what I foolishly thought would be a simple task, but would ultimately end up taking over my life.  I decided that I was going to make a difference–was I ever in for it.

     My first day back to school after HOBY was an interesting day to say the least.  I probably annoyed my friends to no end telling them about the “amazing” conference that “totally changed my life.”  When I was not doing the cheers at lunch, I was furiously texting all my new HOBY friends, and constantly "Facebooking” them after school.  I got close to 50 new Facebook friends, which made a Facebook “junkie” like me jubilant.  Then after a while, about a week or so, it started to die down a bit.  My fingers didn’t hurt from texting so much, my notifications weren’t blown up from HOBY ambassadors posting everywhere, and I stopped wearing my HOBY t-shirt to bed every night.  After a while, I stopped talking to most, but not all, of my HOBY friends, and my focus shifted to other interests.  One could say that life had “returned to normal.”  But yet, something was different.  I had this newfound desire to make a difference.  I started to look at my school differently.  Instead of complaining about my school every chance I got, I began to see its numerous positive aspects.  Rather than look for flaws in the system, I began to look for things to fix.  How could I improve my school and make a difference in the lives of its students?  Of all the invaluable life lessons that I learned during the HOBY seminar, the one that made the biggest impression on me was community service.

     For most of my life, I had largely been apathetic towards community service, and only participated when forced, and grudgingly at that.  Now back in the “real world” I found myself looking for opportunities in my community and within my school to serve.  I soon discovered that there was no outlet for community service at my high school.  I realized that this was what it meant to “be the change”.  If there was no outlet for kids to serve, it was up to me as a HOBY Ambassador to provide them with one.  This is what I was supposed to do; I was supposed to fill this need.  In order to provide an outlet for community service at my high school, I would start a Volunteer Club.  Like most things in life, I now realize that I was unprepared for what was about to happen. 

     So  I decided to start a Volunteer Club.  Simple enough right?  After conducting some personal research, and conversing with my fellow HOBY ambassadors, I learned that there already is a club for high school students whose sole focus was volunteering.  It is known popularly as “Key Club” and is the largest and oldest service organization for high school students in America, and has almost 260,000 members spread across nearly 5,000clubs.  My mission changed.  Instead of starting just an ordinary generic Volunteer Club, I wanted to form an official chartered Key Club at North County High School.

     It was slow going at first.  Trying to organize a club alone is an arduous task, one I did not realize when I came up with the idea.  The hardest part was definitely promotion.  Making posters and putting them around the school for a club that didn’t yet exist and that no one had ever heard of before, on top of all my other responsibilities, really drained me.  Still, I held on to my vision of North County students volunteering on various projects, something that had probably never happened before.  The day finally came for the first official North County Key Club meeting.  I was shaking with nervous excitement-only to see five people attend.  All that work I had poured into Key Club to get it going seemed to have been for nothing.  But I refused to quit, and I persisted with my mission.

     Another meeting was scheduled, and I encouraged the previous attendees, who were pretty much just friends of mine that I told to come to the meeting that day, to tell all their friends.  I even started promoting on Facebook.  At the second meeting, there were over twenty people in attendance.  My heart was beating furiously with excitement.  There were even people I didn’t know at the meeting!  I told them the Key Club story-its history, legacy and impact-and how I wanted to bring this proud institution to our school.  Contrary to my fears of rejection, everyone loved the idea.  Key Club’s first official project was scheduled; we were to rake leaves for an assisted living home for disabled adults.  I was beyond excited.

     Bright and early on that Saturday morning, I sat on the North County curb, waiting with eager anticipation to what was sure to be a successful day of volunteering, only to have six people arrive.  Still, I was not to be detoured.  We continued on with our project, and to my delight, everyone enjoyed it.  Though we were a little understaffed, we raked an entire yard in just under two hours.  The owners of the house were incredibly grateful, and my peers and I had a wonderful time.  I was asking these kids, some of whom I didn’t even know, to wake up early on a Saturday, go to a house that nobody knew the location of, and rake leaves for people they didn’t know.  They did it, selflessly and without a single complaint.  My dream was coming true.  I was using what I had learned at HOBY to make a difference in my school and community, and it was finally coming together.  I couldn’t be happier.  But the best was yet to come.

     Soon, Key Club began to grow at an exponential rate.  Our next meeting had over thirty people in attendance, and people throughout the school were talking about it.  Our second project was with the Anne Arundel County Food Bank; we helped to sort their food donations, so that each needy family got a well-rounded donation of food.  I was overwhelmed with help, as over thirty North County students showed up to volunteer over the course of a four hour period.  It was simply amazing, and it was one of the proudest moments of my life.  This club hadn’t existed a year ago, and there had never before been such an accessible outlet for community service at the school.  It wasn’t that the students were lazy and apathetic; it was that no opportunities were provided for them.  North County students were getting excited about community service, and we were making a difference in our community.  Key Club has been an amazing experience, which I would not trade for any other in the world.

     Key Club's successes only expanded and increased as the new year rolled on..  Our third project, which was to decorate an assisted living home for Christmas, was so well attended that we had to end the project an hour and a half ahead of schedule.  Our January project was in school, helping in various fashions for the annual science fair, and it was easily Key Club’s most well attended project, with over 40 people in attendance.  We have continued to volunteer with organizations within the community, such as the Lutheran Mission Society and Sarah’s house, and Key Club participation in these projects is growing.  Key Club’s reputation has grown so rapidly throughout North County that students and teachers are coming to me with ideas and questions, instead of the other way around.  Key Club may one day become the most populous extracurricular at North County, and its growth shows no signs of slowing down.  I am now the Lt. Governor of my Division with Key Club, and I have successfully "passed the torch" to other members of the Club.  My actions have inspired others to take initiative and take leadership roles within the Club.  It has been one of my proudest moments and it is all because of HOBY.

     Before HOBY, I was largely apathetic towards community service.  I rarely volunteered for anything, and only did so grudgingly.  It’s not so much that I was selfish, for I did feel compassion towards those in need; I just had never felt “the call” to help before.  This is all changed after HOBY.  HOBY opened my eyes to a world I had never visited before; the blessed world of service.  I was accustomed to bettering myself, whether through academics, athleticism, extracurricular activity, or some other extraneous exercise.  It was always for my benefit, to lift me up, instead of lifting up others and bettering the community.  I never did things for others, and I never worked to make a difference in my community.  After HOBY, my priorities changed.  I realized that the universe did not revolve around me, and that in the grand scheme of things, what I did for myself was relatively insignificant.  It was only in serving others that one found true happiness.  I didn’t realize all this during the HOBY seminar, but the things I learned there planted within me the seeds to go out and serve, and discover this on my own.  For that, I am forever grateful.

     Going through this whole experience, first HOBY and now Key Club, has really made me question my priorities, and search for my purpose in life.  For the past few years, my goal for my life has been to work in film.  It’s changed a little as I’ve gotten older and discovered my talents, changing from a director/writer to a producer, but that has been “the dream” for the past few years of my life.  My life was centered on working in film, and I even started blogging on the offhand chance that some producer might stumble upon my blog.  People were always telling me to keep my options open, but I refused to listen, and kept me eyes closed to the possibilities.  It took a revolutionary experience like HOBY and Key Club to make me really think about what I wanted to do with my life.  I found myself with this great desire to “give back”, to better my community and the world around me.  No longer could I sit idly as I looked at this broken world around me; I realized that my calling in life was to make a difference.  I no longer want to go into a career in film.  Part of me still has that desire to work within the entertainment industry, but it is overwhelmed by a much greater calling: a need to serve.  Due completely to my experiences in HOBY and Key Club, I now want to pursue a career in Non-Profit Management.  I want to go to college and learn how to organize and run a non-profit organization, and perhaps one day even start my own.  But I have realized that there is a world of possibilities out there, and from now on, I’m keeping my eyes open.

     But as much as I’ve done, which isn’t really that much, I am just one member of the HOBY family.  There are hundreds of thousands of HOBY Alumni all around the world, with thousands more being added every year.  Alumni all over the world are striving to improve their communities.  My dear HOBY friend Ashley, who is in charge of the Alumni for Central-South Illinois HOBY, created a HOBY T-Shirt that she is selling to HOBY Alumni all over the globe.  One hundred percent of the proceeds benefit Illinois Central-South HOBY seminar, which is in desperate need of funds in order to hold a conference this year.  Another friend of mine, named Matt, is doing big things in his community.  After HOBY changed his life and put it back on the right track, he decided to share that message with his school.  He organized a school-wide assembly, complete with cheers, group discussions, and personal testimonies from him and a motivational speaker. Matt shared his message of compassion and anti-bullying to his peers and classmates.  He received a personal phone call from Hugh O Brian himself, and is now developing on expanding his program to several other schools-possibly even other states. As one who has admitted to attempted suicide, he has a great passion for stopping negative thinking and bullying, and he is making an impact in a big way.  He is pursuing motivational speaking as a full-time career, and I know that he will continue to inspire many people, just as he has inspired me.  These two are great sources of inspiration in my life, and whether they know it or not, their actions have a far-reaching impact.

     What more do I need to say?  I never expected HOBY to impact me so deeply, but I find that some of the greatest things in life happen unexpectedly.  I was unprepared for the wonderfully loving and caring community that I would find myself immersed in, and I was certainly not ready for how much it would inspire me to make a difference in my community.  If everyone could take part in this glorious experience known as HOBY, the world would be a much better place.  Unfortunately, this is impossible.  Therefore, it is up to us, all the HOBY Ambassadors from around the world,  to share what we have learned with the world, and inspire others to “make an impact” just as I was inspired.  This ripple effect, HOBY staff inspiring HOBY ambassadors inspiring friends inspiring others, is the heart of the HOBY mission.  Each HOBY ambassador is given an opportunity to help change the world.  There is a quote by Hugh O’ Brian that I have tried to live by since completing the seminar.

I believe every person is created as the steward of his or her own destiny with great power for a specific purpose: To share with others, through service, a reverence for life in a spirit of love.

     Mr. O’ Brian is urging us to share what we learned at HOBY with others, in order to fulfill our destiny for a specific purpose: to serve others.  This is what I got out of HOBY, and I know others feel the same.  HOBY changed my life, and inspired me to serve others.  It’s given me the tools to make an impact, and I have done that.  It’s changed my life more than I ever thought it would, and I couldn’t be happier.