Co-Hosting My First Event

By Nature, I am shy and quiet, but when you get to know me I am such a kid at heart - At least that's what I think and I am soooo not quiet - I'm definitely not noisy but definitely not shy either. Anyway, I realize overtime that I don't like hierarchy and positions. I like to see the world as my peers(especially people that i lead), I guess I believe that leadership is a title and that great leaders should lead by example.

Last semester, I struggled with the idea of running for president of an organization, I think for the first time in my life I actually felt the nudge to want to lead. Usually, I would go for a supporting role and be satisfied with working all the basics in the background to making sure that things work out well as long as I am not in the limelight. I guess this is part of being in Business school, the need to get out of my comfort zone and the need to do and try new things.

So anyway, my organization held its first Black History Month Event (idea birthed by a 2nd year friend and mentor). From the inception, planning out what events to include on the agenda, how to reach out to people to participate, inviting friends, logistics, food and all, it was a ton of work and this morning, I started to get nervous but it didn't last for long. We had a good turn out of about 30 people (Our organization is only 19 people strong)and the event went way better than I thought. I guess they have been times when I was not at all impressed by the Black History Month events that I attended and I wanted ours to be different.

When we concluded our event this evening about 30 minutes late and the feedback I started getting was that the event was not long enough, this coming from friends who have midterms next week and friends who were not even Black, I felt like we did well. Our MBA program office members who attended also had some good feedback and I also expanded my network on campus. That made me really feel good. Almost like I am beginning to make some mark here.

In planning this event though, I learned that I still need to learn to delegate, - I have the lame excuse in my head that the time it would take me to delegate would also take me to get the work done.
I learned that I come across shy in the initial phases of a speech and that I sway from front to back and play with my hands in a clasp - Now that I know, I guess I need to watch out for future presentations.

I am growing up - both personally and professionally... :)

I am thankful for friends who I invited that came out to support me and for members of the org who had the vision and for members who could come out to participate. I really had a great time.