I'm not exactly sure what my very best leadership experience has been in my life, but I know one that stands out in my mind that's pretty neat. It happened the summer of 2006. I applied for and received the chance to go on a mission trip in Europe. I was the only one who got accepted from my school ,so I would be going with twenty others who were perfect strangers, and many of them college students (at this time I was going to be a junior in high school in the fall). We spent two weeks just traveling and back packing together as a group around western europe and then would be spending another two weeks in Hungary. I think my leadership style was mostly democratic as we all shared in the experience and had pretty equal roles. Our roles were to live with host families in Pecs, Hungary, and teach an english camp at their middle school for two weeks during the summer break. I definitely think I felt like a leader not only when teaching at the camp in the final two weeks, but also throughout the trip. Being one of the only two people who didn't know anyone else on the trip, I think I handled the discomfort of being away from home so long with strangers extremely well. By the end of the first two weeks I felt completely integrated into the group, and was comfortable with everyone I was traveling with. In a more traditional sense, the leadership during the camp involved leading and making up group English learning games with the hungarian children, teaching them english songs, and just going out of our way to befriend them and help them to improve their English speaking skills. Since we all had a task to focus on, the cohesiveness, and effectiveness of our group and leadership roles were very successful. Because we had all bonded for two weeks previous to the camp, we also had strong membership relations and a fair to strong amount of likability for each other. At the end of the camp, the students didn't want us to leave, and even rode along on a three hour bus ride with us to the airport just to see us off back home. I learned through this experience how easy it can be to engage in leadership roles when you put your mind to it, stay focused on goals, and keep a positive attitude about yourself, your situation, and others. The recognition received was mostly just the thanks we got at the closing reception from the families and students. I have also been able to put this mission trip on several job applications, and also received some compliments from friends, family, and teachers for it as well. Also as a previously extremely shy person, this trip helped me open up and learn how to be more outgoing and more of a leader.