Small Steps, Big Growth: Reflections from a Student Leader

Bailey Hughes: All righty, good morning everyone.
I don't think I should have worn heels, I feel like I'm towering over this thing.
But good morning.
My name is Bailey Hughes.
I'm a senior biology student, a member of the Lady Chaps softball team.
An RA at KR, the treasurer of Zeta Gamma, the pre-health club president, and I've also
had the honor of serving as your student body president this year. Gosh, y'all are sweet. Okay.
So I had made a promise to myself and a couple others that if I ever got offered the chance to
speak in chapel, I wouldn't chicken out and say no. And I thought I was in the clear with only a
week of chapel left, so imagine my surprise and slight dismay when Josh emailed me on Friday
asking me to speak. But I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak with you today and just
share a little bit of my story. So for the short time I have today, I'm just going to tell you a
little bit of my experience here at LCU, starting with a little story from freshman orientation.
So first and foremost, I did not really want to be here at first, not really because of anything to do with LCU.
I was just a very, very shy kid, very introverted and definitely a homebody.
And so I just didn't know what on earth I was doing, especially being six hours from home.
And so I went through orientation doing my best just to seem outgoing and excited and all the things you're supposed to be whenever you start college.
But deep down, I just felt so awkward and homesick and just like I was fumbling through everything.
So what's the obvious solution for when you're feeling like that?
Give a speech, of course, because that's super cool.
Because who doesn't love public speaking?
Despite being up here, I really don't.
But for a little bit of context, it used to be a tradition to give a short speech to your orientation group, not just your orientation group, the entire class, if you were interested in joining a student senate.
And I was very interested in joining.
And I think that my thought process was also to kind of reverse psychology myself.
And like, okay, yeah, I'm feeling super nervous and anxious, so let's just do something completely out there to try and balance all that.
And it didn't end up working out because even though I gave that speech, your class votes on who they want to be in Senate.
And I was not one of those people that got voted in at first, but they had interviews like a week later.
And so I did get to join, fortunately.
but the reason that I tell that story is because I think that it kind of encapsulates
in a very short snippet what my LCU experience has been like just starting off very unsure of
myself very just nervous and scared and just taking chances and doing things I wouldn't
normally be comfortable doing and just pushing out of my comfort zone and getting really really
cool and fulfilling experiences because of that. A lot of the leadership positions and things that
I've done on campus, I ended up getting because I decided I would rather do it and not get it than
not run for it and regret it later. And so I really think LCU is such a unique place because
they offer so many opportunities like that and they make it so easy to want to grow and just to
want to become the best version of yourself and so I just want to leave you guys with a couple
things just a couple pieces of advice and encouragement obviously not everyone is going
to want to stand up here and give a chapel speech. But I do encourage you to just find at least one
thing that really pushes you out of your comfort zone and something that challenges you. Because
even if it doesn't work out at first, kind of like my very first speech, you never know how you'll
be able to grow from that. And I really do think that in failure, we find our best moments of
reflection. And that's honestly some of my, I think, best moments and most insightful moments
have been when I failed because it gives me a chance to look back and reflect and make a change
to be better going forward. And the second thing I would like to encourage you all to do
is please slow down. I struggle with this so much. Obviously, you heard all of the things
that I do at the beginning, and it's a lot. And so I find myself getting caught just kind of
between deadlines and always looking to the next thing, always trying to keep everything in order.
And so I encourage you, please, if it's only for a couple minutes a day, find something just to ground yourself, to slow down, and just try to be present in those small moments.
Something that one of my best friends said that really stuck out to me is the little mundane things in life is really what I think a lot of us look back on, and it's what we end up cherishing the most.
and so don't get caught up in the rush of everything and let those little mundane things
pass you by but thank you very much for allowing me to speak to you today and you're dismissed
: *crowd cheers*