I am who I am, and I've never been happier.
This is my home: New Orleans, Loyola, Buddig 405. I've grown so accustomed to living here that going home for a summer to relive my high school years was foreign and unwelcoming.
I spent a summer working at my high school job as an Assistant Manager at Cold Stone Creamery and being an intern at a radio station. I was sitting on the top of the food chain and the bottom simultaneously. It's an eye opening experience to realize how respect and stature mean nothing if its not something that is worth while. I spent four years climbing my way to the top of the Cold Stone part-time pyramid and yet every day of work made me realize how pointless it all was. Whereas, I spent countless hours of week doing pay-less and thankless work suited for the proles at a radio station (a career path I'm barely considering), but yet I was fulfilled. I know I am going to work somewhere within the music industry, and just being a part of it was the most eye opening experience of my life.
I have found what I want to do, and therefore can do nothing else.
Leaving home for the last time this August was a bittersweet experience. It took me all of four hours back in Marietta, GA to realize that at the end of the summer, I was going to do whatever it takes to never go back except for the occasional obligatory visit.
Now that I am back, I am immediately encumbered with a barge load of responsibilities, and I've never been more at peace. It's taken a year, but I'm finally understanding my role here, and I'm finally realizing the direction of the rest of my life.
I am an Honors Music Industry Studies sophomore. I am a brother of Phi Kappa Psi. I am the Director of Student Resources. I am a Cardoner. All of the are fairly self explanatory, except for the last one. It's been a long time since people have really asked me what it means to be a Cardoner, and for the longest the time, my best answer was, "You're guess is as good as mine". The only thing that I knew about the Cardoner Leadership Fellow Program was that I was required to take a certain Freshmen Seminar course with all the people I was required to live with. So a semester went by in Fall of 2010 in which I took the most educational class I'll ever take, Rebuilding New Orleans. Its amazing how little people know about the places they live, and its even more amazing to realize why the city is the way it is. Knowing these things allowed me to learn what I wanted to do at Loyola. It made me realize I actually wanted to do something. I didn't want to follow blindly on various community service missions. I wanted to create, I wanted to lead.
To lead. I never realized how important a leader is to a cause. It only takes a spark to start a fire, but in the words of the Boss, "Can't start a fire without a spark". And this spark is why we are here. St. Ignatius of Loyola told jesuits to, "Go forth and set the world on fire". Finally, as an appropriately named Cardoner, I can do just that. It's what drew me to the program without me even knowing it. It's not about the bull that surrounds it, its not about the scholarship, its not about meeting and connecting with the 20 greatest people I know. It's about the cause.
I don't know exactly what I want to do with this idea, but I know what I'm capable of, and I know the simple fact that I want to do something. So here it is, the start of my quest through the twists and turns of the Cardoner. My journey begins today, and I will document it thoroughly. Wait to see what we can do when we set our minds to it. If it only takes a spark, imagine 20.
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