Daniel Card

My name is Daniel Card; I am the Department Head of Student Leadership at M.E. LaZerte High School. I am a leadership advisor at M.E. LaZerte High School and passionate about student leadership. I love being involved in student projects and seeing ideas take shape and come to life.

I would not consider this a setback necessarily, but my biggest obstacle in life has been body confidence and confidence in myself. I have routinely put myself down and used negative self talk because of my weight and abilities, and feared peers would not like or respect me because of that. Over time I have had to learn to take better care of myself for my physical and mental health, but more importantly realize that (in the best way possible) I am not that important. I think leadership takes a lot of ego, but it takes a lot more to believe that others would spent their time talking about you or criticizing you, when the odds are that that reality only exists our my head. Most people in the world are genuinely good people and most people are genuinely busy people and would not have the time to think about others in that way. Even if they were, people who would try to knock you down do not matter anyways. At the end of the day, we are all responsible to construct our own narratives and value the contributions we make to our life. Our actions are important, our attitudes are important and if we live our lives the best we know how and try and leave our friends, our families, our homes, our communities and our planet better than how we found them, then we have done all we need to do.

I think the defining choice of leadership is, "if not you, then who?" I think it is important that we use this mantra when we are being negative or complaining about the way things are. Adding negativity to a situation helps no one and it is our responsibility to be part of the changes we want to see. I think this is where leaders shine because leadership is not always about the grand gestures or events that we host. Leadership is a lifestyle choice that influences our decisions to advocate for others, ask the difficult questions and take on the jobs others are unable or unwilling to do so that we can help other people. I hear a lot about youth feeling unprepared for the future or not believing that their education is going to be relevant when they get to the "real world”.

Ultimately all of us are heading towards the future and heading their together, all preparing for an unknown future. What we do know is that no matter what comes our way, we will all have be good citizens, we will all need to be caring, empathetic and respectful and all of us will need to learners. If you frame your day in terms of not "what did I learn today" but "how did I learn today" and "who's day did I make better" I think you find that you will be future ready. Change your lens and you can see the value in everything you do.