What was your first taste of leadership? How did it feel to be responsible for others?

Early experiences with leadership often arrive before we’re ready for them — being asked to lead a group project, watch younger kids, captain a team, or make decisions that affected others. These moments can feel empowering, uncomfortable, exciting, or overwhelming, especially when responsibility shows up without much guidance.

This prompt invites you to reflect on the first time you realized your actions mattered to more than just you. Consider what responsibility looked like then, how you handled it, and how it made you feel in your body and mind. Writing about this experience can reveal early instincts around authority, care, confidence, or hesitation — and how those instincts may have shaped the way you approach leadership and responsibility today.