I'm so glad you're here

A few weeks ago the Alumni Office at MIT encouraged its Student Ambassadors to apply for a position as Student Blogger for the blog you are currently reading! I love writing and I love MIT so I applied and, as a result, I will be here reporting and recording some of the happenings at MIT in the coming months.

My name is Christina and I'm a junior at MIT. Throughout the semester I am confident you will find out more (than enough) about me and my past and current experiences at MIT. But tonight I am inspired to tell you about what a good number of MIT students have been up to for the past hour or so. (And it's not watching the Grammy's...although I am doing that right now!)

Josh Schipp, a 25 year old motivational speaker, came to Kresge Auditorium to deliver his keynote lecture, "Don't Be Average" to MIT students. This in itself is kind of ironic since most MIT students are far from average, but the speech was great!

While I didn't take notes, upon returning home I jotted down a few of Josh's points that resonated with me. They are:

• There are two ways to say everything; one is kind.
• What, at first, may come off as an annoyance to others could turn out to be your biggest asset. 

  (As an example, Josh spoke about being a class clown and rather er, loquacious student in high school and how these initial annoyances are, in fact, what lead him to be a motivational speaker.)

• Find something to do that you love so much you would do it for free, but do it so well that people are willing to pay you for it.
• Say, "I'm so glad you're here."

  The last point meant the most to me - Josh reminded me how important it is, in any and all leadership positions, to show enthusiastic appreciation for others and their dedication to your cause. Can you imagine if someone said this to you, personally, every day and really meant it? In leadership positions that I've held in the past, I have *always* been very glad for each person that showed up to an event I cared about (be it a student council meeting, a team sport, a mock trial competition, an information session) but I rarely got the opportunity to personally verbalize this sentiment to every person in attendance.So, for now, it's great to meet you, and...I'm so glad you're here!