Week 4: LIFE

Another mostly uneventful week goes by. More classes, more pasta, and the occasional night at the on-campus sports bar.

I realized on February 2nd, 2011 that there was an event coming up the next weekend, which I was required to go to - ‘LIFE’. I had heard ‘Oh, it’s a leadership boot camp of sorts. You get yelled at for two and a half days then you graduate. It sucks at first, but then it gets better’.

‘Great’, I thought. ‘Won’t be traveling much this weekend’. I inwardly frowned, soured by the idea of not being able to go out of Paderno.

I went into the LIFE experience with a cocky, nonchalant attitude. ‘I’m an Eagle Scout. I don’t need to be taught how to be a leader. I can handle people yelling in my face. People are making this a mountain out a molehill’.

Then I began LIFE. I’m sworn to secrecy on what you do in the program, but let me tell you something – I was wrong. I really and truly thought I was prepared to be a leader out in the real world. In reality, I was prepared – prepared to be mediocre.

By going through LIFE, I have found that there is vast potential within myself that I had not previously been using. Though I was already conscious of the fact that I am going to die one day, I have now put my existence into perspective. 

Life is short. You are born - then you die. I do not know when that day will be, but, when I go to my deathbed, I do not want people to look at my body and say, ‘Oh, he looks so peaceful’. I want people to see my face and know that I have exhausted every last ounce of my being by being the best Heath Titus McCasland I can be. I want to be completely certain that people at my funeral say things like ‘He was my greatest role model’ and ‘He made me feel like a million bucks every single day I worked with him’ and ‘He was the husband every girl dreams she could have, and he was mine’.

By going through LIFE, I do not try anything anymore. I do things, and I do not do things. I will be who I want to be. Like Master Yoda once said, “Do, or do not. There is no try”. Like Gandalf the White once said, “You must do what you can with the time that has been given to you.” Like Jesus Christ said, “This is the greatest commandment, to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength”. Unless I read those incorrectly, you don't get credit for simply being present - you have to actively do what you must to make life worthwhile, both for yourself and for others.

By going through LIFE, I have learned about myself at my most basic levels. I know who I am, really and truly. I have tested my true beliefs against what I thought I knew they were. I have made goals for my future, and I will carry them out. I have climbed walls, and torn others down. I have shown compassion. I have shared my past experiences with complete strangers. I have learned to trust when I have felt most vulnerable. I have found that the best leaders are the ones that not only encourage their team members, but do so with unfaltering enthusiasm, passion, and projection. I have done these things, and I have seen my classmates do the same. I have surpassed my own expectations. I know and appreciate the significance and meaning behind the most basic of human emotions. I have shed tears. I have loved and I have been loved back.

I cannot further explain in words how life-changing LIFE was to me, or I would be spoiling what it means to go through the program. Instead, I will let you ponder these words, often attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson. This became the mantra of LIFE.

Success

To laugh often and love much

To win the respect of intelligent persons

And the affection of children

To earn the approbation of honest critics

 And endure the betrayal of false friends

To appreciate beauty

To find the best in others

To give of one’s self

To leave the world a bit better

Whether by a healthy child

A garden patch

Or a redeemed social condition

To have played and laughed with enthusiasm

And sung with exultation

To know even one life has breathed easier

Because you have lived -

This is to have succeeded.