In the spring of 1998, I won a pie-eating contest.
Actually, that's a lie. Truthfully, I've never even participated in a pie-eating contest. But a lot of people were led to believe that I had, and as it turns out that supposed victory in a competition of gluttony led to my actual victory in an election.
Being involved, and to a lesser extent in charge, has been a passion of mine ever since my dad brought me to a weekend leadership conference called ATTILA when I was in grade 6 or 7. The conference was being run for the student council of O'Neill, and since Dad was the staff liaison for the student council, I got to come along.
ATTILA is one of my fondest memories. It may seem silly, given that the weekend consisted mostly of simple team-building activites like climbing a wall and getting through a "spider web" without touching the "web," but what makes it special is the way I was treated. The high school kids that I was with accepted me as an equal, never patronising me or making me feel my youth. Even though they didn't know me, they made me feel like a friend.
ATTILA (and the second O'Neill leadership conference I attended when I was in grade 9) taught me that great people can make any experience worthwhile. Many at ATTILA were the "drama type;" funny, outgoing and not afraid to be the centre of attention. These sort of people bring out my best qualities, which explains why I wanted to be on the student council at my high school after ATTILA. The one thing I can't explain is why I never actually got around to running for council until grade 11. (I ran for and was acclaimed as the Grade 11 representative.
Being on student council was a lot of fun. It was hard work too, but one person in particular, who fit into the "drama type" mould, made all the work worthwhile. Steve Maddiss, whose first name is "Steve" and not "Steven" (even on his birth certificate), was the vice-president of student council. Steve's best qualities weren't just that he was outgoing; he was also hard-working, smart and strong-willed. He's one of only three people from highschool that I keep in touch with.
In 1998, after my first year on Paul Dwyer's student council (in which Steve and I had fought against a poor president and helped in re-writing the student council's constitution, making it a Canadian system of Prime Minister et al), I decided to run for Prime Minister. I was running against another council member, Katie Bonnar (whose dad offered me a ride in the pouring rain which I refused because "you don't accept rides from strangers," which I slapped myself for afterwards - I was in grade 9!), and we had to make election speeches to the entire student body. The way these work is simple: a council member introduces you, and then you say your speech.
Steve decided to introduce me. I knew that he was going to say a little bit about me, but not exactly what he was going to say, so my pie eating came as a surprise even to me. The student body, fickle as it is, chose the purported pie eater over boring old Katie. Even though I had no idea what Steve was going to say, I think Katie blamed me for my dirty trick.
Fast forward a little more than one year. We've been in a situation of teacher work-to-rule the entire 1998-1999 school year, which means that our usual staff moderator wasn't doing anything more than signing cheques for us (when we could track her down, that is). Student council, left entirely on its own to accomplish the dances and spirit weeks and other activites that are usually held, is still functioning - but it's not fun. I've had to hold together the council, ensuring that things get done, monitoring people and projects. Worst of all, Steve had graduated and no "drama types" had replaced him.
By the time the end of the year rolled around, I was mentally exhausted, and I vowed to never again lead a group. After the student council elections, I went out with a bitter, tired speech; it wasn't until someone commented on it that I realised that I'd burned out. The next year, my job on student council was small: attend School Council (otherwise known as Parent-Teacher committee) meetings, and provide a little bit of guidance for the new Prime Minister. It was a lot easier, and I ended the year without any major problems.
Now we're in our 3B term, and we're busier than we've ever been before. You need only look at Rachelle Boisjoli's page, or one particular entry on Thai's page to see that the work is causing people to burn out. I have even been thinking semi-seriously about the fact that after this term, we can graduate with a general B.Math (if we have enough courses) and never come back. We're here only by choice - we can leave whenever we want.
Last year, I forgot my vow to never again lead a group, as evidenced by Debconf 2, which I organized in 2002. After this term, we'll forget about the workload we had to deal with too.
I just worry that this isn't the end of it - that our workload will increase over the next two terms.
