Education of Cyrus
The person in my life that I could say has shown the most leadership and best leadership throughout the course of my life, and their own is my older sister Tiffanee. I was about six or seven years old when I first started noticing her leadership abilities. What first drew my attention was her dressing, similar to a politician. I remember she will always try to wear business casual attire whenever we went. She would put her hair in a neat ponytail, light makeup, her outfit would be ironed, dress shoes, and wear glasses. We attended public schooling in Prince George’s County; the kids used to bully my sister for how she dressed. A group of girls jumped my sister one day she was walking home from school. My mother would always get upset with her for wearing her “church clothes” when she would not be attending church. The school had uniforms so that she would get into trouble at school as well. I did not understand why she dressed like that with all the consequences that came from it. We had casual clothing and school uniforms; she did not have to wear that to school. When I would ask her why she kept being insubordinate, she would say she is a leader and leaders dress to impress. As a young child, I did not understand what she meant. However, as I got older, I saw she always had employment. I cannot think of a time where I have known her to be without a job. A job that she would thrive with promotions. She would never stay too long at one location.
I later found out because better opportunities presented themselves from her hard work. She used each job as a steppingstone while appreciating every single job. When I would visit her previous employment establishments, the employees would always recognize me as Tiffanee’s little sister. Expressing how much they miss her selfless, hard-working, and leadership talents. The way her peers spoke of her made me proud of the impact she made and that I can call her my sister. My sister is big on my mind over matter; she tells me all the time I can do whatever I put my mind to do. She will always say if you let people control what you can or cannot do, they can control any aspect of your life.
The area in my life that I believe Tiffanee’s leadership skills are more useful in the classroom. It is helping need to have mind over matter and letting me know that even though there are obstacles in bumps in the road, I will not let it discourage me. When I do not get the grade I was anticipating, I will not stop pushing myself. I will take that grade as a lesson of what I need to improve on and do better next time. I will only learn from it and continue to thrive and push towards my goals because I can accomplish anything that I set my mind to.
I would like to have a phronēsis for Global warming that is occurring in the world right now. The conversation between Cambyses and Cyrus gave him steps on how to get people to follow him. Cambyses says he must “praise and honour for the obedient, punishment and dishonour for the disobedient.” Meaning that to receive others’ obedience, you must reward those who obey and punish those who are disobedient. My plan will be regulating American households by proposing a global warming tax. There would be a chart based on geographical locations in the amount (in pounds) of recycling each household should have monthly. There will be a requirement for recyclables to be disposed of in plastic bags.
Recycle removers will weigh the bags before being tossing them into the recycling truck. Weight will be calculated at the end of the year per household, determining the amount taxed on households. Households that bring in the least amount of weight receive a higher global warming tax. Families that bring in more weight receive a much lesser amount of the global warming tax. Once you start taking people’s hard-earned money, they start to listen. Americans won’t listen until they start seeing the money they owe to the government from this tax. After that, they start caring about the money, and then that’s when they start paying more attention to the change they are contributing. Americans will start to see that they are destroying the world with their habits, hoping that other countries will begin to see the global warming tax and take part in it.
I ran track in high school, and I was pretty good. My relay team and I broke one of the state records for the 4x4 relay. An event in track and field where there is a team of four elite fast runners performing in the 400-meter dash. When we won first place, all of the glory and bragging rights went straight to my already enormous ego. We started calling ourselves the RBs for record breakers. Then I started missing practices, giving my coach poor excuses for why I did not show up. This pattern of behavior continued for a couple more weeks until I was put on probation. I was unable to compete until my coach felt that I had improved mentally. I was furious; I could not believe her decision. I thought how stupid of her to bench one out of the team’s only four record breakers. It was the spring season of my junior year, where there would be a plethora of academic scouts. I fought my way through hell and high water, trying to get myself removed from the bench. The coach would not bulge with the school administration standing behind her. Let’s say I was not the most well-behaved student that I could have been. I missed out on a season to get looked at by scouts because of my teacher but because of my own choices and behaviors. I was my cause of phthonos by hindering my ability to lead my team to victory. At 16 years old, my choices stood in the way of my own future. After being mad at the whole world, I finally realized I was the one to blame for my probation. Everyone influential in my life, including my coach and teammates, only wanted what was best for me. This lesson helps me change my ways, and two get myself together to be mentally and physically able to compete in track and field and life. It took a taste of victory to stop me from being humble and staying focus on the real task at hand. From that day on, I try to remain humble even when celebrating success because I know I could be the cause of not reaching my full potential.
In high school, if you did not have the latest clothes or shoes, you were considered an outsider, and if you were smart, you would get bullied. I would consider myself a social butterfly, able to bond with pretty much any group. I can fit in with the popular students because I had a job to afford the latest fashions and outsiders. I related to the outsiders because I was smart, and I knew how it felt to be picked on because of my clothes. One day I was in a break session with a mix of outsiders and popular kids. The teacher had a thing to go out of her way to make all known introverts leaders of groups and public speaking tasks. So I was delegated with the role of the leader of my group. When I began the meeting, some of the popular students began teasing me because I knew what the teacher was talking about. I was so appalled like there was no way they could be referring to me. I felt a sense of shame; I was embarrassed in front of my peers. I pretended to be clueless about the work and asked the teacher to give a role to someone more qualified with a good understanding of the assignment. I let a few students who are barely passing tease me into causing interference of my academic potential. I overcame the feeling after my teacher refused to switch me out; she saw something in me that I did not. I will never dumb myself to fit in for anyone as long as I live.
Being the youngest in my family has its pros and cons. Being the baby, I get babied; however, my ideas or feelings sometimes get overlooked because I am considered the baby. Being the last one to leave the nest, everyone always has unsolicited advice on how my future should go. When I brought up the idea to attend Howard University, the feedback I received was negative. Zero words of affirmation and a million words of reasons why I should not. I overcame this by ignoring them and following my passion.
In the upcoming weeks, I anticipate to have the feeling of phthonos from my fitness professors, my homework, and the fact that I am shy is hindering me from speaking up in class. My shyness gets in the way of my participation at times. If I am going to be a leader, I cannot be scared to take charge. Nobody will take me seriously if I do not have the courage to speak up. I will use the Education of Cyrus in my everyday life, reflecting on terms of the overall culture.
