The spotlight may not fall on you but you are the one enabling the spotlight. There is a certain joy in seeing others do their best.
TENZIN TSETAN
When I think of leadership it sounds like something that I cannot achieve, something that I am not capable of reaching, yet here I am today, writing my experience on leadership. My name is Tenzin Tsetan, I am a Tibetan and the current student union president of Jyoti Nivas College Autonomous, Bangalore. This is my story of how I discovered that leadership meant to grab opportunities that come by, and to volunteer to make small things happen.
When I first started out in this college, I was of the mindset that I would go to college, attend my classes and just go back home. But naturally I volunteered to be part of our college drama club. I was seldom on the stage; I was either behind it or at the wings. I controlled lights and generally helped direct and choreograph the actors. There I realized, probably for the first time, that the play is not just about the actors or the directors but also about those who work backstage; the spotlight may not fall on you but you are the one enabling the spotlight. There is a certain joy in seeing others do their best.
When others begin to notice you for the right reasons is the beginning of being a public leader. I became the class representative for two consecutive years and when I left the post; I was encouraged to take part in the student union presidential election by my professors. I saw hope in them which I have not seen in myself for a long time. I was overwhelmed my feelings of insecurities and “what ifs”.
During my high school days, the word 'leadership' was highly daunting. It made me believe that it is associated with academic achievements only. When I was not considered as a candidate for my 12th school representative despite being a rank holder, I sank into my insecurities of not being good enough. College elections came like a new chapter in my life -a chapter that I possibly could not have even dreamt about. How would someone like me even stand for such a prestigious post, let alone win? My college proved that neither my ethnicity nor my race mattered as long as I am what I am as a person; that was all it needed. My family feigned normalcy when I stood for the election. They made sure that I knew that they were proud no matter what. To them my comfort and my mental health came first; but I had never seen them express such happiness as when they heard the news that I actually made it.
During my campaigning, I received immense love and support. Without the help of my friends, I possibly would have stood in a corner, struggling to ask people to vote for me. A sense of belonging, acceptance and love filled my soul. It was a point in my life where there was something beyond winning and losing, a quest in finding oneself. You need not know who you are and what you need to do in life, but all that you see is that you are waking up to tackle each day even when you are plagued by self doubt. What am I doing? what am I compared to them? why do I have no future plans yet others seem to have their whole life planned out? are some of the questions that I ask myself the majority of the days. I still believe that leadership quality is beyond me. I hesitate on public speaking, trusting my own work; but I think as humans they are usual: even a student president of a college, have self-doubt and do make mistakes.
A leader need not lead someone else but just be there in times of need. People have exceptional skills to make it on their own and sometimes when they get tired, it becomes our duty as a human being to give them a nudge and maybe that is what makes people trust you and in that trust you create the bond of a leader and a follower. Even while writing this I feel strange calling myself a leader. I have been just doing small acts of making things happen: many of which were voluntary, and some even forced on me by others; but in retrospection I realize that I grabbed everything that life threw at me. Nobody becomes a leader by reading textbooks about being one. Maybe that’s why we need to have our own definition of leadership- perhaps a definition that moves beyond all given definitions.
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