John C. Maxwell’s Law of Environment is a law I have lived unconsciously by for my entire life. In this chapter, Maxwell discusses the choice of changing who you spend your time with in order to grow. He states, “the people with whom you habitually associate are called your ‘reference group,’ and these people determine as much as 95 percent of your success or failure in life.” Growing up as a kid at Ford Elementary School, I always made friends with those who, like me, always did their homework and enjoyed reading books. I remember that I was always afraid of the “bad kids” at the school and subconsciously wanted nothing to do with them. Little did I know then that I was building the foundation of my standards for future reference groups that
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While I did learn quickly from being the one of the smartest in my wild freshman spanish class that I needed the environment of Pre-AP and AP classes to be able to learn, I did not do the same with color guard. As a sophomore, I decided to join the color guard at my high school. Three years later, as a senior and lieutenant of the guard, I was humbled to get a lot of compliments from the younger classes about being one of the best at spinning rifle. I never thought about how I was not getting better by being at the top, but rather assumed that if I was pretty good there then I would be good anywhere else. My high school director fed my assumptions by convincing me to audition for the weapon line of the Crossmen World Class Drum and Bugle Corps. He was so convinced I would make it and be one of the best that he was as surprised as I was when I got cut at my second audition camp. At both audition camps I had the pleasure of attending, I was stunned at how I was actually one of the worst there; it was a feeling I had not felt since I first started color guard. Frustrated that I could not grasp the hard skills they taught us at auditions, I realized that I may have been one of the best at my school but even that did not prepare me for the level of intensity in the flag and dance work I learned
While I did learn quickly from being the one of the smartest in my wild freshman spanish class that I needed the environment of Pre-AP and AP classes to be able to learn, I did not do the same with color guard. As a sophomore, I decided to join the color guard at my high school. Three years later, as a senior and lieutenant of the guard, I was humbled to get a lot of compliments from the younger classes about being one of the best at spinning rifle. I never thought about how I was not getting better by being at the top, but rather assumed that if I was pretty good there then I would be good anywhere else. My high school director fed my assumptions by convincing me to audition for the weapon line of the Crossmen World Class Drum and Bugle Corps. He was so convinced I would make it and be one of the best that he was as surprised as I was when I got cut at my second audition camp. At both audition camps I had the pleasure of attending, I was stunned at how I was actually one of the worst there; it was a feeling I had not felt since I first started color guard. Frustrated that I could not grasp the hard skills they taught us at auditions, I realized that I may have been one of the best at my school but even that did not prepare me for the level of intensity in the flag and dance work I learned