what keeps me going... 8 years down the line.. still to be a LEO... :)

Most of my friends tell me enough of being a Leo and I should quit without wasting my time… Given lot of thought to it… I realized… it was 8 years ago…

My heart was in to help out someone less fortunate always but seeing my parents run one meeting to another, I hated Lions and the every bit of wasting time in it… I was forced to join the dilemma and that too as the first club president of a new leo club… when I was picked at the final orientation I was traumatized… it was just after ALs, I had 20 guys and 2 girls in the club… and truly I didn’t know what to do… it wasn’t easy, coz everybody were elder and as a president I didn’t wanna boss them around but STILL had to made them listen and work… I learnt my first lesson from Leoism very soon… not every person can be approached in the same way… to get things done, some need to be buttered up... some need to be complimented… and YES some needs to be yelled at… Flirting must have worked too but it was never my style back then :P Soon I realized that its not easy to lead people from different walks of life without being diplomatic and tactful… never being a diplomat for the last 18 years, I learnt to listen, to ignore, to voice out and mostly to be patient.

Soon I started enjoying little bits of the things I did which kept me going… being a stubborn, spoilt only child of my family it taught me how to be a part of one BIG family… it taught me how the simplest things can make people happy… it taught me how to smile at little things in life… and it made me realize how blessed I was unlike many many less fortunate people in our country…

it taught me that “deadline” & “punctuality” are not just words… it taught me how to be a friend and stay calm when friends be-friend… this movement gave me my first job, it made me to do things I never even dreamt of doing before… I slapped a guy for the first time (a leo yes!!!) , I knitted a jacket for an achchi at an elders home and got blasted for messing it up, held the hand of a seeya when he cried saying how I reminded of his daughter who left him at an elders home to migrate.… I hugged a differently abled kid when he called me "amma" in front of hundreds of people... I sang carols LOUDLY… walked door to door to sell tickets in aid of cancer hospital… I got humiliated million times in public :P

I’ve seen Leos falling in and out of love with each other… I’ve seen them dating and breaking up… I’ve seen some happily married with kids today… was never the same with me, being a person who rarely get attracted to anyone this movement made me get crushes on 2 ;) (not during the same time span.. duh) both awesome ofcourse… and yes I enjoy every bit of it… even now… wont tell the rest:P

This movement taught me how people can change... how crazy… how stupid and how immature they can stoop low to earn “recognition”. It taught me that “competition” is not just a word but includes loads of sweet talks to the face and stabbing behind backs… it taught me how to say NO to people and things I don’t like ;) (ahem… wont go into details there) it taught me how to deal with psychotics and lunatics… (today I can tackle any psychopath without freaking out… lol)

It taught me how to handle criticism without getting affected…. How to accept defeat for unfair reasons…. To stay calm with a smile and realize life is not fair all the time…

I know many who left the movement because of the same reasons that I chose to stay on… experience of all these has been a guide to live my life fully without regrets… to learn, to accept, to fail to fall and then to move on…
This Leo movement made me smile… made me laugh… made me cry… made me yell… made me scream… made me love… made me human and made me LIVE my life… During the past 8 years it has seasoned me, spiced me… tempered me… and it made ME a complete human being… it made ME what im… and maybe that’s why I’m still a LEO… I had more than thousand reasons to quit… but i didn’t, because it taught me a lot much more than Leadership, Experience & Opportunity…

our side of the story.... reply to "tribute to nice guys"

This is for the girl who is also known as a tom boy, sometimes vicious, sometimes crazy and fiercely loyal. This is in honour to all the girls who have been there for guys but never being noticed because they have never been “drama queens” or centre of attention among guys.

This is for the girls who don't want to play mind games, but always end up being confused victims of them, who provide a comforting hug to a guy friend when he goes on and on about how a “bus knocked up his newly fixed alloy wheels and paint” not understanding a single word. But yet being the supportive audience for a story they've heard a thousand times. This is for the girls who understand that they aren't perfect and that the guys they're interested in aren't either, for the girls who worry and obsess over the slightest glance, whisper or a touch of him because somehow they are able to keep alive that hope that maybe, just maybe this time he feels the vibe like you do. This is a tribute to the girls who laugh out loud forgetting all girly manners, who are comfortable in oversized t-shirts but not tight skirts, who care more then they should for guys who don't deserve their attention. This is for the girls who have been in through it all, when he dumped you or your best friend for the HOTTIE in town, who have watched other girls fake up and flirt with the guys in their lives. This is for the girls who have been there from the beginning and have heard all words of advice from all around the world saying" there are plenty of fish in the sea" to "time heals all wounds" This is to honor those girls who know that guys are just as scared as they are, who know that they deserve better but who are seeking to find it.

This is for the girls who have fallen in and out of love, but still fall anyway because they don’t want to miss getting butterflies in their stomachs and how a simple glance can melt them away. This is for the girls who have offered to write him notes when he went out to play pool, to the girls who run in to save a chair for him in the morning lecture without breakfast when he spends time flirting in cafeteria. This is for the girls who have left sad song lyrics as their facebook statuses, who have tried to make him understand through a just a simple line, who have time and time again dropped him hint after hint only to watch him chase after that fake hot girl in a skirt. This is for the girls who have been told they're "too good" or "too smart" or "too pretty", who have been given compliments as a way of breaking off a relationship or who have ever been told they are only wanted as a friend.

This one is for the girls who you can take home to your mom, but won't because its easier to pass time with all women who are free to flirt on. This is for the girls who have been led on by all simple signals, all of which were either only true for the moment, or never real to begin with. This is for the girls who have allowed a guy into their head and heart and life, only to discover that "he's not ready" or "he's just not ready for commitment". This is for the girls who believe all these stupid excuses because it's easier to believe that it's not that they dont want you but its that they dont want anyone.

This is for the girls who have had their hearts broken and their hopes dashed by him to have cared in the first place, this is for the nights spent analyzing every word and tone in his speech with your girlfriends when he said “I never saw her in that way” or “My feelings are negative towards her”, “she is my bestfriend not my girlfriend, I don’t know what to call us” or something absolutely blunt and sharp as “I don’t feel anything for you anymore”. This is for the girls who have waited for soo long and finally having realized that it wasn't that he didn't want a relationship; it was that he didn't want you. This is for the night you realized that it would never happen, and the sunrise you saw the next morning after crying all night pretending to sleep.

This is for the "I really like you, so let's still be friends" This is for the girls who have been used and abused, who have endured what he was giving because at least he was giving something; this is for the stupidity of the nights we've believed that something was better than nothing, though his something was nothing we'd have ever wanted. This is for the girls who have been satisfied with too little and who have learned never to expect anything more, the secrets and mistakes he did were kept safe with you, hugged him and assured “everything will be ok” but in return when you tell something in confidence they successfully manage to highlight it as the “topic of the month”. This is for girls who gave everything they could coz he called you a friend, and coz you took him as one but ended up feeling used and lost when he wasn’t even there for you as a friend. This is for the hugs you've received from your girlfriends, for the nights they've wiped your tears saying that you are "beautiful and intelligent and loyal and truly worthy of a great guy".

Guys sit and question and whine that girls are only attracted to the mean guys, the guys who betray them, insult them and don't appreciate them and don't want them; Guys complain that they never meet nice girls, girls who are genuinely interested and compelling, who are intelligent and sweet and smart and beautiful; They say that no good women want to share their lives, that girls play mind games,

Our question to you is:

If you meet one of these genuinely interested, thrilling, compelling, interesting and intelligent and sweet, and beautiful and smart girl will you take time to get to know her, to understand if she is really the one? Or will you just flirt because she was looking extremely gorgeous at the party tonight and call her “hot” but would you, or would you not, refuse to make plans with her, speak with her, see her again, and once again return to party and search once more for this "nice girl" who you just cannot seem to find?

So don't say you're on the lookout for the nice girls, guys, when you pass us up on every step you take. There is a nice girl in every girl. Sometimes we go undercover; sometimes we go in disguise; sometimes when that girl in the low cut top or the too tight dress won't answer your whistle... you should know…

we might say we like the attention, we might blush and giggle and turn back to our friends, but we're all thinking the same thing.

"This isnt me... Tomorrow morning I'll be wearing a T-shirt and pyjamas… without make up, eating breakfast with my bestfriend talking about how heels hurt… See through the disguise, See the real me"

You never do. Why? Because you only see the exterior, you only see the hot girl who flirts with you. You don't want the nice girl… so dont say you're looking for a relationship - relationships take time and energy and compromise, three things we're willing to extend - but in return, we're looking for love, loyalty and trust, three things you never seem willing to express. Maybe "nice guys finish last", but in the race they're running they're chasing after all the easy-targets... the nice girls are waiting at the finish line with a bottle of water, a towel and a hug, hoping against hope that maybe you'll realize that they're the ones that you want at the end of that silly race.