The world is a complex place; a matryoshka of wonder, sorrow, peace and problems. Each layer revealing more of the world and humanity’s true nature. In a world increasingly influenced by technology and dictated by work/school schedules, meetings and commitments, people continually have less time-often sacrificing personal health and relationships in order to prioritize their dedication to their work, schooling, et cetera. In addition to neglect due to busy scheduling, technology itself-from the internet and social media to video games-seems to have taken an unrelenting hold on our everyday lives with many people refusing to communicate and spend time with others in person opting instead to take refuge in the snare of handheld technology in an increasingly digital world. Albert Einstein supposedly said, “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction” and it seems as though that day is quickly approaching, if not upon us already. Altogether, this neglect forms the basis of two key issues that go hand in hand and that will be focused on in this plan:

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1.      Lack of communication and the deterioration of relationships it causes

2.      The deterioration of personal health

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Society and the cost of living require people to work in order to support their family, resulting in cramped schedules and exhausted people at the end of the day. Because so many people have such little time to spend with loved ones and follow their passions, being healthy and creating healthy habits usually gets put on the backburner or isn’t acknowledged at all. My overall goal regarding this issue is to help people understand that it is possible to maintain healthy social and physical habits without sacrificing too much of their time while teaching them the numerous health benefits simple exercises such as walking can have. The issues identified above are important to me because I have experienced the effect neglecting people, and health, has on someone and have seen the toll it takes on other people. In high school (and currently still), I dedicated myself entirely to school and extracurriculars. My entire life revolved around school; when I had a lot of assignments to do or tests to study for, I would isolate myself and get them done working multiple all-nighters a week-often turning down requests to do things with friends. I lost a friend by doing so the summer before my Junior year and in a year gained twenty-five pounds from focusing solely on classes, homework, tests, bowling, orchestra and academic team, and being severely stressed out about everything. While my hard work payed off, I’d like to be able to show people that there is a balance between obligations, relationships and health that could be easily maintained with little time commitment.

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              I plan to address the issues above at the local level through the creation and implementation of two programs. First, I will create a community-wide walking club that will teach participants healthy lifestyle habits that they can easily integrate into their lives and provide people with a fun, stress-free opportunity to communicate with new people, friends and family; such a club would meet for an hour 2-3 times a week and promote healthy, easy, (physical and social) habits. Secondly, I will create a lesson plan-presentation, worksheets, notes, et cetera-to be presented in the health/gym classes at the local high school to inform students about healthy habits that they can easily apply to their everyday lives as well as in college. Regarding stepping out of my comfort zone to learn more about/contribute to solving the issue through the two-part plan above, there are two thematic areas under which my actions would fall: research and leadership. I am usually comfortable researching and learning about new things so I wouldn’t view something new as stepping out of my comfort zone but instead as a challenge. Unfortunately, like many people, public speaking is not my best skill so spreading the word about my programs and gathering participants would be a challenge as I’m not the most charismatic person. Opportunities that could help me prepare to address the issues addressed above include:

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1.      (Research based) Conducting a survey of people throughout the community asking them about their current habits, the approximate time they spend socializing, the approximate time they spend exercising, how much free time they believe they have and whether they believe they have enough time in their week to socialize and exercise.

2.      (Leadership based) Contacting and shadowing a teacher in the classroom to learn, from a teacher’s perspective, how to form a lesson plan and what would be needed to truly interest the student and engage them to learn about easily implemented healthy habits such as walking.

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One goal for myself throughout this plan, centered on the leadership thematic area, is to be able to increase people’s awareness of the negative effect of neglecting socialization and healthy habits while being able to provide them with, easy, healthy habits that they can implement in their everyday life. Ultimately my leadership goal is to help others improve their lives. Another goal for myself throughout this plan, centered on the research thematic area, is to discover definite trends within my community relating time management (and what time was most spent on), stress, amounts of physical activity and everyday habits. I hope to be able to identify what is negatively affecting people, share my findings and inspire them to change and improve their habits through gathered data.

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              Focusing on the above opportunities, my individualization strength would be best utilized when conducting the survey as I would be able to accommodate and get to know each surveyor individually. My relator and individualization strengths would be best utilized in the leadership opportunity as I would need to get to know the students/people I would be presenting the information to as well as their individual learning styles. While these strengths would be utilized in these opportunities, they would also be expanded upon as I would learn new applications for them through experience and when I implemented my plan I would be able to further use all of my strengths as I would be responsible for organizing and leading the group of participants, walking routes, lesson plans and presenting the information needed to help alleviate the issue of social and physical health neglect. Not only would I utilize my strengths within this plan, I would also highlight and feature participants’ strengths as I discovered them-an inclusion I learned from the Clifton strengths and “stand up if…” lesson plans in Gateway to University Honors.

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              I am hopeful that my plan will make a difference in the everyday lives of the people within my community. Whether they learn how to include easy exercise into their busy schedules or incorporate more socialization in their everyday activities, I hope that my program/plan will be able to help-perhaps in a way they themselves had not yet realized they needed to alter.

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So get up! Dance! Walk! Run! Meet some people! Have some fun!