Unity

Because of some of the late night distractions during NLGA 2011…keep it PG readers, these bears don’t mess around at leadership conferences…I was unable to blog every night as should have happened. So instead what I am going to do is give reflection on my time here at NGLA and then over the next couple days im going to be posting some reflections on my individual sessions….unless im a blogging rockstar and can bang out a couple of them tonight before bedtime.

To begin, I am actually going to start at the end, and work my way backwards. I just got downstairs to the hotel lobby aka the “Bearsden” of Hartford CT, where we have some wifi access, after an intense game of Taboo. Now to give you some prospective on how intense we Bears get when it comes to Pajamajammiejam taboo here is my favorite moment…incase you missed all the excitement on Twitter. I was definitely and unfairly brought up on a Judicial Board where Switzerland aka Audra yelled at me and found me guilty and responsible for cheating on the William Shakespeare card. I’m pretty sure in our Taboo frenzy we could have out screamed a heard of preteen girls at a Justin Beiber concert and I have to say, true justice was over looked but maybe I’m just biased. ;)

After what seemed like an exhausting couple of days we were able to come together and really express what we as a community have been trying to accomplish, Unity. I think this is a word that we throw around a lot in the world of leadership and organizations, but I think its one of those intangible things that can really only be seen in glimpses. In Gladiator Marcus Aurelius said that the Republic of Roman was so fragile that you could only whisper it, or it would disappear. it was that fragile. I feel like Unity is the same. If you do anything more then whisper about it when its happening you threaten to lose it. Now there are always those exceptions but for that sassy pants reading this that wants to argue with me, humor me for a minute.

The one thing I learned above all else is that Unity is the binding force that holds us together, especially when we have to fight and struggle for it, even if only for that one brief moment in history we truly feel it. At this conference I have felt more sparks of Unity then at any other time during my student leader career.

During this conference we have had our fair share of squabbles, throw 13 people in that small a space, for that long, with no escape other then intense intellectually stimulating workshops designed to teach, train, and challenge what we already know as leaders, and make it so they don’t get much sleep, there are bound to be a few issues that come up. But in those few minutes you could feel the unity, even if only for a few minutes. I think as Greeks there were times throughout this conference where regardless of the letters on our chests we came together and could feel it, even if only for that fleeting moment. Now don’t read too much into the bickering part, there wasn’t a lot of fighting or anything but there wasn’t that intense unity throughout the entire conference. Just like back on campus.

But at times during some of the keynote speaker’s presentations, during parts of different workshops, during some of the bonding moments; I could feel the energy that erupts and fills a room when we actually come together. This was a powerful thing for me. So many times I lost faith during this past year because that Unity and spark wasn’t there for my chapter. So many times I thought it was hopeless, an uphill battle I wasn’t going to win. But experiencing this feeling during the conference resonated with me at an event my fraternity just had before I left for this conference. For a moment we had come together; despite our differences, despite our conflicts, despite our feelings for each other, for that one fleeting moment we were back where we were two years ago when I joined. That one fleeting moment is worth the battle.

If nothing else I will remember this conference for reminding me what that feels like. It’s a powerful and emotional feeling to have and it makes everything else worth it. I think we work our entire lives just to have a few moments like that, where we feel at one with something or someone, even if its just a few times in our lives. Id recommend taking a moment to look deep inside yourself and try and pick out those few times were you and everyone else in the room seemed to share one energy and one emotion, there aren’t going to be that many, but how awesome do those memories feel when you recall them? That’s worth fighting for. That’s worth the work, worth the exhaustion, worth the effort. Even if I get just one more time this year with that feeling, I know that it was worth it, because years from now when I think back on college those are the memories I will remember and smile at. I wont remember every squabble, each argument, each time I was a spectator in a moment; I will only remember those times were I was a participant in a moment where everyone came together in a moment of magic and sang with one voice.

So for now I’m going to sign off and leave that thought out there. Take it for what it is and I hope when you think back, that you can have a moment like I did. A moment where in the heat of a random Taboo battle I felt not only like a member of a moment, but a member of a movement, no matter what your values, no matter your race, creed, color, orientation, or age, watch out BSU, these Bears have something special, and when we have that moment as a campus where we come together, that’s when the magic will happen, and that day is just on the horizon.

Chris Espinoza