You can have a title and still not be leading. Leadership is about responsibility, not authority.

In high school, I chased positions... titles felt like the goal.
When I didn’t get them... my energy and enthusiasm dipped.
When I did get them... I coasted.

The effort that earned me the opportunity rarely carried into what came next.

It wasn’t until the summer after my sophomore year that I finally started to understand what leadership really looked like.

I spent ten days at the High School Leadership Institute, a program run by the Archdiocese of Baltimore. That experience reshaped how I thought, worked, and led, and to this day, I carry the lessons with me.

It taught me to think beyond myself.

To care about the details and the energy.
To consider the timing, flow, communication, setup… not just the outcome, but the experience.

But I still had (and sometimes still feel like I have) a long way to go.

That program helped me see myself as a leader for the first time.
But becoming a leader? That’s been a lifelong journey — through high school, college, a full-time career, and entrepreneurship.

The reflection activity I facilitated last week with the Carson Scholars Fund team reminded me how powerful it is to look back. Not just to celebrate how far you’ve come, but to reconnect with the moments that shaped your path and the lessons you learned along the way that define you.

And speaking of shaping paths, I just arrived in Chicago to help lead another program that means a lot to me: HOBY Youth Leadership’s weeklong international World Leadership Congress, starting this Saturday. (I’m lucky to help lead our college-age volunteer team, it’s both a privilege and a lot of fun!)

If you're looking for a reset, here’s a place to start
  - Take some quiet time to look back at your journey with honesty
 - Name what drives you now (write it down!)
 - Choose how you’ll show up next (and turn it into a goal)