My X-Factor
An X-Factor is that unique quality that separates you from the rest, making you you. An X-Factor can be anything that has shaped you into who you are. For me, my X-Factor caused me to grow up quickly and learn that service is important. Below are the PowerPoint slides and script I read to present my X-Factor.
Return to my Vision of Leadership video or read my Leadership Poem.
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The time I spent in Germany really shaped who I am today. For papers and college essays I usually make up something about Germany making me more culturally aware because I was submersed in a foreign culture for two years and attended an international school. That is true, every year my family celebrates Christmas with our German decorations and I’ve continued to take German in school, but that’s not how I think living in Germany has changed my life.
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I moved to Germany before the start of second grade. I had moved once before, but that was only to Connecticut, not a new continent. It was an exciting move. I had been learning German after school with a tutor and watched the Muzzy videos a thousand times. I was going to live in a fancy hotel for a few weeks, like Eloise, and then move into a new house on a new street.
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We hadn’t been living in Germany long when my mom started complaining about not feeling well. She said she was having chest pains and her throat felt like it was swollen shut. She was always tired and her joints ached.. Her hair was thinning and migraines made her head throb. Her vision blurred and she complained of extreme pressure behind her eyes. She was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a disease in which inflammation occurs in the lymph nodes, lungs, liver, eyes, skin, or other tissues
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The disease took a toll on my mom and treatments in Germany were quite unusual to an American accustomed to American treatment methods. Doctors didn’t want to give her medicine; instead they relied heavily on alternative medicine, like the things straight out of that documentary in Mr. Couillard’s class last year. After giving the alternative treatments a try she decided it would be best if she returned to the U.S. for procedures and medicine.
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My dad had just received a promotion, the reason we were sent to Germany, and so he was always working. With my mom going to doctor’s appointments in Berlin and her returning to the U.S., things were hard. My parents hired a babysitter, Nadine, to help out. She would pick my sisters and me up from school and watch us for a few hours every day.
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That meant one of my sisters or I would have to have a house key. After having to climb over a wall down the street from our row house to get into our back yard when Emma forgot the key carrying responsibilities, my parents decided to give it to me. That was an honor since I wasn’t the oldest. With Emma being a little forgetful and Maddie still in preschool, I had to step up and be the responsible one.
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While my mom was gone, I also had to be the one to help my dad out. Our American friends in Germany helped by bringing us dinner, but it was up to my dad and me to reheat it without burning the house down. We ate a ridiculous amount of lasagna and because of that I am the Lasagna-Reheating-Extraordinar, but to this day I absolutely cannot stand the taste of lasagna any more.
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After two years in Germany, we moved back to Virginia. I didn’t always have to be there to help like in Germany. We were closer to family and Mom was actually beginning to get better. That didn’t mean I could stop acting more mature. Stress affected my mom a lot so it was up to my sisters and I to not stress her out any more than the move already had.
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That experience helped me grow up. I wasn’t asked to quit school and work a day job in order to support my family and in return robbed of my childhood. I just learned at a quicker pace that goofing off or misbehaving was not going to help whatever situation I’m in. I still was able to have fun but understood there is a fine line between having fun and acting immature and irresponsible which in turn would make it harder for my mom.
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The things I learned have had a lasting effect on me. Hating lasagna is not the only thing I got out of my mom being sick. To this day I try my hardest to be responsible. I’ve never been the one to purposely make things harder for my parents. I don’t cause trouble at school and I don’t participate in stupid behavior outside of school. When an adult tells me to do something I do it.
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My X-factor and leadership go hand-in-hand. My mom being sick has taught me to grow up and be responsible which has led to me being in the Leadership Program and an active member and officer in Do Something Club. Mr. Nabors often tells me I get stuff done. I am a person who gets stuff done and done well.
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The same way I was responsible to help my mom, I think of myself to be responsible to help others. I volunteer my time to help others because stuff needs to be done and I can do it. I spend my free time giving back to my community because it has been wired into me from the years of helping my mom. If someone is in need, I want to be the one to help.
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My will to help would mean nothing if I hadn’t learned maturity from my experience when I was younger. Being mature and giving back is recognizing that there are people depending on you to do your job and do it well. You cannot sign up to do a job and then not deliver to the people in desperate need of help. I have come to represent a reliable source of help.
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Last week when our school was stuck by tragedy with the loss of a fellow student, there was a call for help, which was answered with the help from the Do Something Club and friends of Luis Mendez. On that Monday, the Do Something Club officers weren’t doing anything in Mr. Nabors room since we were between projects. Mr. Nabors rushed in and asked if we were busy, which we weren’t, so we followed him not knowing what we were about to do.
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We walked into a classroom filled with Luis’ friends. There was so place to sit so we filed in against the wall, still figuring out what we were about to do. We were asked to help his friends organize a fundraiser to help cover the expenses of Luis’ funeral. We agreed and we did it. In four days we helped raise over $4,000. I understood the weight of this project. Everyone had to deliver and pull his or her weight to make it possible and it turned out to be a success.
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But what if everyone wasn’t mature or responsible enough to make it happen? A family who already suffered an enormous loss would face another depressing fact that they would not afford to give their deserving son a proper burial. That is what I believe my past experiences have helped me realize.
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From living in Germany and helping my mom, I’ve discovered something I really enjoy doing and I wouldn’t be doing it if I hadn’t lived in Germany. My mom would have still been sick, but in the US my mom has the rest of our family. My role would have been minor and wouldn’t have given me the opportunity to grow like I did.
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Since then I’ve continued to grow. I’ve matured more and have taken on greater responsibility. I still help my mom, sometimes more reluctantly than others, but I always do my job whether it be setting the table or driving my not-so-little-anymore sister to tennis practice. My service goes beyond my home as I continue to donate my time to others beyond the required time for Leadership, Beta and NHS.
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Through the Do Something Club, I’ve grown closer to my best friends while helping others in the community. I wouldn’t have met them or helped the people I did had my past been different. I probably would not be in Leadership and I wouldn’t be able to stand in front of a group of people and speak seriously about what makes me, me.
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While it was hard to see my mom so sick and suffer through the terrible side effects of the medicine she was on, I’m thankful for her to be healthy now and how much I’ve grown from the experience. I started off as a goofy kid excited about living in Germany to becoming a more mature and responsible goofy kid excited about moving home and one day returning to Germany. Its hard to imagine where’d I be otherwise because I have found what I love to do and am surrounded by people I love all because one day it was my turn to carry the key.