Drawn Toward Leadership

Historically, I’ve found myself stepping into leadership roles—sometimes by choice, sometimes by circumstance. When I went back to college after the Air Force, I accepted the position of editor of The Campus Voice at FCCJ. Later at UNF, I ran for Student Senate. I didn’t win the election, but I got enough attention that I was appointed to an at-large seat. By my senior year, I was named Director of Student Lobbying, and I even launched a campus voter registration drive that caught the eye of a local TV station.

That pattern kept showing up. In Marietta, I ran for and won election as Assistant Secretary of a local political party. When the Secretary stepped down, I filled that role, and the next cycle I was elected 2nd Vice Chairman. More recently, in both Marietta and Jacksonville, I’ve served on the Vestry at my church.

Add those experiences to the role I play every day in the classroom and the responsibility I carry on the football field, and the picture becomes pretty clear: I’m drawn to leadership. I don’t pretend to be perfect at it, but I hope I’m at least OK at it. For me, leadership isn’t about the spotlight—it’s about showing up, taking responsibility, and trying to leave things better than I found them.

About Douglas Blaine

Capnpen is a writer who was a newspaper and magazine journalist in a previous life. A college journalism major, he now works as an English teacher, but gets his writing fix by blogging about a variety of topics, including politics, religion, movies and television. When he's not working or blogging, Capnpen spends time with his family, plays a little golf (badly) and loves to learn about virtually anything.

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