Hallmark Moment of the Week: Leadership

In Phi Theta Kappa's first general meeting of the Fall semester, we were honored to present Olympic Gold Medalist Breeja Larson as our guest speaker. Breeja discussed the values of leadership; the importance of pursuing one's goals and the sacrifice and drive necessary to achieve extraordinary feats. Breeja also had a chance to reflect on how she views competition.

"Competition can be healthy and it can be cruel. There are people that have told me that I need a gender check. [They] try to tear me down mentally. People say 'I want to see her lose, she's such a sore loser!' I wanna say, 'well you've never seen me lose..'"

She continued to mention that aside from rare isolated accounts, the competitive spirit at the London Olympics was a positive one, and that it was "such a healthy atmosphere."

"Your lane is yours. No one is gonna get inside of my head. I'm in lane 8 this is my lane, and if someone is gonna try to psych me out I'm not gonna let it get to me. This lane belongs to me and if I come in 8th place, it's because there are 7 people that are better and there's nothing wrong with that."

Breeja Larson won the gold medal in the women's 4x100 meter relay at the 2012 London Olympics. She is currently continuing her education at Texas A&M, and will be training with hopes of continuing to compete in the next Olympic Games.

On behalf of all of us from Phi Theta Kappa, we'd like to thank everyone who attended the event, and would like to remind people that membership is not required to attend general meetings. We have many exciting events planned for the fall semester's meetings and we look forward to seeing you there!