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I want to take you on a trip back to the past, to when the space shuttle, Columbia, disintegrated during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, and all 7 passengers passed away.
When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl XXXVII to win their first ever Super Bowl title. Back to when Elizabeth Smart was found after missing for 9 months, and warmed the hearts of many Americans by her return. Lastly, clear back to when the U.S. invaded Iraq with the help of British led coalitions. These are major events that you may remember about 2003, but to me these events don’t compare to the event that affected my whole future and began to develop my ethical leadership.
I was 9 years old, and in 4th grade. My mother always told me, “You are who you hang out with,” hoping that I would get the hint and find a new group of friends. I now realize exactly why my mother was so worried as I started to befriend kids who acted out in school, and who defied authority. I continued to hang out with these friends until I had to learn the hard way of my beliefs. In the month of October, I watched the news and came across a story about jelly bracelets. The news reporter explained that the once fad is now back in style, but for a terrible reason. The jelly bracelets were symbolic of what a guy wanted to give to you, they were given the nickname “sex bracelets” from that point forward. Basically if someone snapped one of your bracelets, you had to do whatever that color meant. Since I was just 9 and I did not fully understand the universal meanings of the bracelets, I decided to follow my best friend’s meanings for the colors. I only remember a few colors: Pink meant that you had to kiss a boy, black meant you had to talk back to a teacher, green meant that you had to make fun of the
“smelly” kid, and lastly red, which mean that you had to scream bloody murder to interrupt class. If you have not guessed it by now, this whole idea was going to end badly.

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The school principal called my class into the gym for an immediate assembly; little did we know we were all in danger of major trouble and be given an ultimatum. Principal Bender addressed the current jelly bracelet situation and decided to ban the bracelets all together. The ultimatum that we were given was that someone was to tell who started this mess, or he would cancel the Halloween parade. Of course hardly anyone knew who had started this mess or that my best friend was the one that was ultimately putting the Halloween parade in jeopardy. My friends assured my best friend during the assembly that her identity was safe between us all, but I was not going to let her ruin Halloween for everyone. After the assembly I came forth and spilled the truth about her starting the jelly bracelet shenanigans. What happened next was unforeseeable, and completely shocked me. Principal Bender did not enforce harsh disciplinary actions; he only proposed a call to my parents since I participated with the jelly bracelets. Since that day, my parents have continually influenced my attitude, actions, and my future path.
Ethical leadership starts with an attitude, but before you can develop the correct attitude you must have a basis for ethics. My basis for my morals and beliefs started with a strong Christian foundation. Church was a very important routine in my family; we rarely missed a service. Because I was so involved in religious activities, my morals mimic most of the
Christian morals. My parents repeatedly emphasized that my attitude should show how my parents raised me. They mentioned that just because something was popular does not mean that it is a good thing to do. My parents shared a Bible verse with me that became engrained into my head. Romans 12:2 says, “Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let
God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to

3 know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” I realized from this verse that
I needed to act like myself, and follow what I think is right. I did not need to follow what others perceived as right because the people of this world may not have the same morals and beliefs as I do. My attitude may have stranded off into the “world”, but now it is rebellious because it does not conform to the worldly beliefs.
After addressing my attitude, my parents began to explain that the next step was to make sure my actions reflected my attitude. It is one thing to say you will do the right thing, but it is even harder to have your actions reflect your ethical words. It is scary to change your actions because people may not agree with you, and may end up not liking you. I shared this fear with my parents and they quickly opened their Bible to John 15:18-19. This powerful verse says, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” Of course the world does not hate me because
I went against the crowd, but this verse made me realize that I only have to please one person.
That person chose me to do what is right, so if my actions make me uncomfortable for a short amount of time then I will be a rebel and different.
Because of my parent’s advice after the jelly bracelet incident, my future molded itself into a path that became ethical. I truly believe that the path I took influenced by my ethical attitude and actions. My path was and is very conservative. I was only invited to a couple of parties in high school, mainly because people knew I would not come due to my beliefs about underage drinking. I stood out in my sports teams because I did not take part in the illegal activities off the field. I had created a great reputation with my ethical character. Due to this,

4 my coaches chose me to act the captain of two of my sports teams. They put me into these positions because of my ethical leadership. One test that I remember came every year in between league and regional track. Between these two important events was my high school’s graduation, which had large graduation parties after the ceremony. Two things were wrong about attending these parties. The first was that it’s illegal to drink underage, and against my morals to get drunk. The second was that my track coach restricted us from going to any of these parties because we had a huge meet coming up. Everyone on my team received invites to these parties, but going to any of them wasn’t even a question for me. This test showed that I did not conform to my peers, and that I was doing the hard thing by matching my attitude with my actions. This was just one of many tests that I have faced. I would describe my path as rebellious because I was one of a few that did what was right even when it was unpopular.
My attitude, actions, and future would not be the same without the guidance I received from my parents after the jelly bracelet nonsense. The verses they showed me from the Bible will always be the basis of my attitude. Because of this ethical attitude I will continue to succeed in making my actions match my morals and beliefs. My actions will guide my character towards credibility and reliability, so that I can act as a good ethical leader. Being an ethical leader is not always comfortable, like when I decided to come forward and tell the truth about participating with the jelly bracelets. Because I came forward, I opened a new door to a new person, and who I am today. Next time you come face to face with an unethical situation, I urge you to rebel against the group and do what is ethical and right.

References
Bible Gateway passage: John 15:18-19 - New International Version. (n.d.). Retrieved
March 30, 2015, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John 15:18-
19&version=NIV
Bible Gateway passage: Romans 12:2 - New Living Translation. (n.d.). Retrieved March
30, 2015, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans 12:2&version=NLT
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