Assignment 24-The Future: Sloan Warner

My junior year has been hectic, with a lot more ups than downs, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. My main successes have been balancing when to have fun and when to get down to business. I have matured more and more and I have found my work ethic which I think has been my most important accomplishment thus far. Pretty early on this year, I decided that the earlier I start building my professional-self and preparing myself for the "real world", the happier and more successful I will be down the road. Just through keeping myself more informed as to what is happening in the world by reading the Wall Street Journal every day or reading an interesting book (I am about to read a book about Robert E. Lee on leadership which I am very excited about), I feel I have matured quite a bit. Another way I have grown is by emulating the actions of the successful people I know today and aspiring to be like them. Doing the little things they do can be a true game-changer. 

Now have I made some mistakes along the way? I will be the first one to admit that of course I have made some mistakes, but I grow from every mistake and move on as a better person. One of the many things I learned from the Leadership Lexington Youth Program is that you must act with integrity and own it when you mess up, you must move on walking the fine line between learning from past mistakes, but not looking back on the past because you can't do anything about it. 

This summer is going to be one of the most jam packed summers in my life. I recognize I am really lucky to be able to travel everywhere for lacrosse and family trips and I look forward to every second of it. One goal of the summer is to get recruited to play lacrosse in college, but I understand that if that doesn't materialize, there will be many other great opportunities for my college experience without lacrosse. 

For senior year, I hope to continue to develop my professional character so I am fully prepared when the time comes that I am a "big boy" with a "big boy" job. I know many kids sort of goof off the second half of their senior year once they get into college, but I really would like to take the chance to instead prepare myself further for the "real world". I am excited to see where life takes me and I will find out soon what the rest of my life is going to look like. All I gotta say is that LIFE IS GOOD.