Breaking Boundaries
Breaking Boundaries; a line that roots to many different causes of conflict. What are boundaries? Sometimes they guidelines set up to protect us from harmful situations. Other times and the context I am talking about, they are things that are built up within society preventing us from things that could actually be a positive experience. They are walls that we even build up within ourselves, where we tell ourselves that we can’t do something when really if we set our minds to it we could do things that we never thought imaginable.This past week, the School of Leadership students took a break from the road tour and headed to Parkview High School. While there, we sat in their leadership class, helped at the lunch program and tutored in the different classes throughout the afternoon. When sitting in the morning leadership class, we got to know the students quite well, they had already become a family but they welcomed us quickly into the clan. These students showed me the true meaning of perseverance. Some of their stories that they were willing to share with the group were things that some of us could not imagine happening to us in a lifetime, and here it is a norm for these teenagers. You see, this school is located in one of the roughest neighbourhoods in Canada.
Yet, these leadership students chose to go to school, they choose to get out of bed and get an education. They aren’t handed a lunch and sent merily to school, they choose to be there. They persevere through the struggles of their life and still choose to do something positive, they choose to speak for those who can’t speak up, they choose to be leaders in their school. I thought back to my own high school experience, where a lot of people would just skip school because they didn’t feel like going to class. My time at this school really put things into perspective for me, if these students can get up and go to school with all the struggles that they have, why shouldn’t I be able to get my work done on-time?Which brings me back to these boundaries. I always tell myself that I can’t or that its okay to be lazy sometimes, I was building up these walls and day by day the walls are slowly diminishing because of these leaders showing me meaning of true perseverance.A special thanks to the student’s teacher. He really believes in the students and is making such an impact at the school.~ Laura, A School of Leadership Student