Leadership, Service, Time Management-Ben Miller

The Friendly Foe

Yes, I did post!

Charla's take on Time Management

Managing time well allows you to lead better.
It frees-up time to serve others.

Erica's WAC 2-10

Tim vs Indesign

Friday. A day when just about everyone was already in the state of procrastination that accompanies so many student weekends (the state where you have all the best intentions to get your homework done, and yet somehow…). But not just any Friday. Of all the Fridays from last semester it was the first Friday of my life that I would create an Indesign poster all by myself. Both of the previous two weeks I had enjoyed the luxury of channeling my wife’s artistic abilities for the purposes of advertising our Humanities Facebook group. This Friday would be the first time I was left to my own left-brain, black-and-white way of thinking to create a document that was supposed to be embraced by the masses of the Technicolor world we live in. So, with the noblest of intentions I set out to create my first advertisement all on my own. I will never forget the emptiness that accompanied that first blank document. A whole white page with nothing on it.

The only formal training I had received had been half-hearted observations while I watched my wife work away at making the previous posters. She had made it look so easy! Anytime she needed to do anything to an image or text it was a manner of seconds! SECONDS!!! In contrast, I remember spending twenty minutes trying to figure out how to even enter text! Nevertheless, it came to pass that I was able to finish my first poster all on my…well…okay, she was in the room doing her homework, and was asked numerous amounts of questions… In the end it four hours. FOUR! ON A FRIDAY! Yes, it did leave a serious dent in my ego. But now, I stand before you to say, “Thank you HCSC for providing me with the opportunity to learn what Indesign is. Thank you for the time I was able to spend stepping into the new world of design. Had it not been for you, and your Facebook group, I would have lived my entire life oblivious of what it takes to make a quality poster.”

Student Council a Resume Builder?

Hi. My name is Jared. I am five years old. I love Spiderman. *Swing!* *Web!* *Splap!* And what I really really really reeeeeeaaaallly want for Christmas is a Spiderman toy. That's all.

Yeah, I picture Jared as an irresistibly adorable boy. I can only imagine how much his parents love him. Think of how tough it would be as Jared's parents if you were unable to afford even the smallest Christmas gift due to financial challenges. For some, the problem is employment; for others, it is debt; and for yet others, it is cultural and ethnic barriers. Whatever the case, no parent can easily cope with the guilt of being unable to provide for their children's wants.

My parents have always had to live humbly, and there were some Christmases when they would feel that inexpressible guilt of not being able to provide for our wants. Often, just to relieve their sense of inadequacy, they would provide gifts for us above and beyond their financial means, because they loved us. During the harder times, we would be surprised by a door-knock, and to our amazement would discover unexpected bicycles or books provided by unseen neighbors and angels. So I suppose I feel a certain connection with kids like Jared.

But I don't believe that Service and Social Committee wants to have a monopoly on these kinds of uplifting experiences.

The simplest action can be sanctifying when we have the right motive. If a kid takes out the trash on Wednesdays because it's his chore, then that's all fine and dandy. But if he takes out the trash because his older sister is sick and he wants her to rest and get better, then dragging that garbage can out to the curb-- the very same act as before-- is now sanctifying his soul.

Likewise, student council members can do the exact same things and have strikingly different experiences because their motives are different. If someone is in the council to build a personal resume, then that's fine by me. If someone is here to flex their academic muscles, then be my guest. These aren't necessarily bad things to do. However, Paul speaks of a "more excellent way" (1 Cor. 12:31) and I believe that this applies to us. I want to extend a invitation to those who may be questioning whether they contribute significantly to student council: Find somebody to serve.

Obviously, the Service and Social Committee has a heads-up on others because, oh yeah, service is their committee name. But that doesn't have to stop service from being a part of every council member's work: Service and Student Involvement, or Service and Alumni, or Service and Internships, or Service and correspondence with Dean Rosenburg.

Stretching ourselves so that we can serve somebody has a sanctifying effect. It makes us happy-- as happy as, say, a baby panda on a rocking horse. Yep.

Regardless of what administrators deem the mission statement of Humanities Student Council to be, let us always integrate service into the work we do.

HSC and what it has done

Courtney's Entry

A Lesson Learned...

As stated in Preach My Gospel, "Patience is the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated, or anxious...You must be patient with all people, yourself included, as you work." I LOVED this video when I saw it! Since I have been a member of the Humanities Student Council, I have frequently been provided experiences through which my patience has had the opportunity to grow.

Whether in striving to accomplish a goal to benefit the college, or learning to balance the meager amount of time in life, I have been blessed as I've diligently worked to develop the heavenly virtue of patience. Interestingly, one must recognize that patience can only be acquired or practiced as we allow ourselves to be pushed to our outer limits or placed in certain situations in which this principle can be exercised. Seeking to "stay within our comfort zone", or to "keep other's out of our bubble" rarely afford us the opportunites to increase our abilites in this regard.

Living in a time called by Elders Neal A. Maxwell and Robert D. Hales "The Age of Entitlement", I have learned the importance of avoding the worldly expectations of 'instant solutions' and 'immediate gratification'. When setting out to fulfill our goals or complete our projects, I've found it quite healthy to simply take a step back and realize that although in my mind I see the ideal result -the end from the beginning- unforeseen obstacles are sure to arise, and I can either stew over them, or accept them, address them, and move forward.

"I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times."

Everett Dirksen

The Light in the Midst of the Tunnel

Color Codin' Blues

Linguistics

My very first day of coming onto campus consisted of going to the humanities college orientation. I was so excited to be a linguistics major, and yet I knew nothing about what I was getting myself into. As I walked into the orientation room, I was given a small mountain of papers. The one on the very top caught my attention, as I saw my last name 'Elzinga' printed on the paper. My heart started to beat extremely fast, knowing that somewhere here on the BYU Campus I had a relative! After talking with the department Dean about the Linguistics Major, I put myself on the line as I asked him if he knew a 'Dirk Elzinga'. He replied that yes, not only was he a Linguistics teacher, but that his office was on the 4th floor!
I ran as fast as my little freshman legs could carry me and I tore a piece of paper from one of my notebooks. I started scribbling a letter out as fast as I could, when from behind I heard, "Can I help you?" No sooner did I look up but there was Professor Elzinga standing right next to me. After introducing myself, and sadly finding that there was no relation between us, he invited me to come to a Linguistics Activity. Well I showed up to the activity and found myself as the newest officer in the Linguistics Society. I have often thought back onto my freshman year and how I was, in a way, tricked into helping out. At the same time, I am forever grateful to him for asking me to help. Because of the Linguistics Society I was excited to apply to the Council. Not only has my courage and self-confidence grown, but my leadership skills have doubled. I now have the confidence to speak one on one with teachers and even tried my luck at an internship in Germany. While my extra curriculars will not help me enter graduate school, they have helped me grow as a person. I will forever be grateful for the faith that Prof. Elzinga had in me, to ask me as a freshman to be a part of the Linguistics Society. It set me off on a roller coaster ride into things that I never dreamed I would have the courage to try.

While I was making this, I wanted to include a movie reference, but it didn't seem to fit with the format of the slide, so I'll put it here. As you'll soon discover if you spend any amount of time with me, I will take any excuse to quote Emperor's New Groove. It makes me laugh and it reminds me that life is full of "cruel ironies" and that when life "by all accounts [just] doesn't make sense," I can still laugh about it. If you can name the parts of the movie those quotes came from and which characters said them, I'll be rather impressed. That's all for now.

Shout-Out to Service and Social

A Love of Music

Get Involved and Get Out There. WAC Feb. 10, 2010

Ben Miller 2/8/10

So, first off, I should point out that the quote used for this week’s prompt doesn’t convince me that extracurricular activities are at all causal in relation to higher grades and more satisfaction with college and social life. I hope that one of the takeaways from everyone’s college experience is a healthy skepticism of statistics and research.

As far as how involvement with the HCSC has been of value to me, I would say it’s three-fold:

First, it has helped me to better distinguish between those things I do well (or am awesome at) and those I do not do well. I do my best to facilitate communication, to help everyone feel involved, and to make sure that goals are accomplished. I do not plan activities. At the same time, doing those things I don’t like/am not good at has helped me to push outside my comfort zone.

I'm still not as awesome as this kid, though.

Second, the HCSC has allowed me to meet and interact with phenomenal students. The group we have is wonderful. I have learned so much from everyone and am very thankful for that.

Third, working with HCSC, and by extension with further BYU offices and administration, has helped me to see that the way (how well/poorly) you organize, work, and communicate within a bureaucracy can be the deciding factor in whether or not things get done. When you move beyond your micro-level committee, things tend to get mucked up and gears just turn much more slowly. This has been a valuable lesson for the future.

Overall, HCSC has been a fantastic learning experience, while also introducing me to people who will long be friends and associates.