Okay, you heard me! How do you unite a community? It can be over anger, joy, trepidation, confusion, excitement or tragedy. Find a common theme? What it boils down to emotion. We as people act more on emotion than we realize. It drives us to stand up for what we want and it triggers passionate responses.
Last week was homecoming week at the high school I graduated from, Kettle Run High School, and as exciting and spirited that week was, two kids from my county died that week: Ian Heflin and Sydney Davies. The events themselves were horrific enough, but the fact that they occurred during a time that was supposed to be jubilant was further unsettling. However, when I went home that weekend, a saw emotions that dominoed into meaningful actions. At the football game, we banded together to create an orange-out in honor of Sydney (orange is the support color for leukemia), and at the dance the following night we had a momentary observance of these two people from our community. These actions allowed the members of the community to find a source a peace and shared understanding that other people were upset from these misfortunes and they could find support in each other.
An effective and well-functioning community works together, has common goals, and works like a team. Without these essential elements, it becomes difficult to exist in the same environment because feelings of being alone interfere with the connections you have with members of your commune.
As you go through out your walk of life, I ask you to question your own actions- after all actions speak louder than words. How are you uniting (or perhaps un-tieing) your community?
– Margot
October 3rd, 2012 at 11:45 am
I can definitely relate to this!!! The year before last, a girl that had just graduated from my high school’s rival school got into an accident with a drunk driver and lost her life! Like you said, it was even more tragic because it happened at a time when it was supposed to be celebration time; she had JUST graduated not even a month prior. But it was absolutely amazing to see how people from all the schools in my district came together to show support! I think tragedy shows who people really are. Although we were rivals, we put all that aside and came together to celebrate the life of this wonderful girl!
October 3rd, 2012 at 4:29 pm
I can really relate this this. About three people died last year from my high school (two suicides and one from illness) and the tragic emotions behind these losses really made our high school unite and forget about all the petty drama going on in order to pay our respects to those that were taken away too soon. I think that leadership also center around unity, be it behind emotion or anything else.
October 3rd, 2012 at 4:54 pm
Some of my friends knew Ian and were affected by this. During my junior year in high school, one of the seniors died. It was a really bad motorcycle crash. After this, the community realized serious driving is. It was a big wake up call to have a small town, probably less than 3,000 people. It brought the fact that life is very fragile. Everyone went to his funeral.