Auld Lang Syne

Did you know that "Auld Lang Syne" is actually a poem by Robert Burns? It's set to the tune of an old Scottish folk song.


It's easy to tell that students are back at home and their parents are starting to ask questions about their college experience.....as my email has suddenly seen an influx of questions from the residents of my building. After weeks of silence, deserted office hours, and the unwillingness of any students to even make eye contact with me let alone ask me anything, suddenly there are tons of questions and scenarios that need played out. It's hilarious to me, and I really love how all of them start out by saying that they hope I am enjoying my break and that they're so sorry to be emailing me. My out-of-office auto reply tells them that I'm out of the office until January, so despite that I should probably be responding to their emails as I get them, I've been ignoring all of them. My conscious is starting to get to me and I think tonight that I might actually hammer out a few emails in return....unless I decide not to :)

So far my winter break has been extremely relaxing and lazy. I've done a lot of sitting around, plenty of tv watching, and much catching up with old friends. Being back in my hometown for an extended period of time has been challenging at times but a lot better than I was counting on. Celebrating New Years Eve tomorrow will be just like old times and I'm excited to have a few drinks and socialize with people. I've made some tentative plans for the rest of the weekend and then I'll be heading back to my job and my little apartment.

I have managed to do a little work during the past few weeks, including making an ever-growing to do list for when I return to the office and doing a little prep work for a class that I'll be teaching this spring semester. I'm already starting to feel the stress of having to jump right into a very busy month as soon as I return and I'm not a fan of seeing that my January is going to be devoured by work and probably little personal time. What will keep me going is the upcoming events of my birthday, a visitor or two, and eventually spring break. Looking ahead at times is the only way that I can survive in residence life.

"Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right."

The above quote comes from the one and only Oprah Winfrey. I know, I can't believe that I'm actually quoting her. It's not that I dislike this incredibly strong and powerful woman (we can never have too many in this world!) it's just that...well, I guess I don't know how to articulate it. But I mean, who can blame her? If I had as much money as her I'd probably do the same things, including starting my own magazine and putting myself on the cover every month. How ballsy of a move is that, and she still sells them because she's Oprah. Maybe we should all aspire to have her fame and fortune.



Who can believe that I'm getting ready to close my building and head home for winter break? This semester has not just flown by, this YEAR has sped past me so incredibly fast. It's usually at this point that I like to think about what's gone on this year and do some kind of 'year in review' synopsis. So, in no particular order.....

- I moved for a job that I thought would be fantastic (and it is) and for reasons that were all my own (ignoring what others really wanted me to do).
- I turned 24 and started feeling old. I did have a pretty sweet party thanks to my best friend and favorite people back at home.
- I job searched and job searched until I started not caring where I worked and what I did. And then this place called me for an oncampus interview and everything changed.
- I learned to be happy and satisfied on my own, then decided that maybe I wanted to date again.
- I started planning for my retirement, right as the economy decided to crap out. I have some type of portfolio-thing with some big company that didn't file for bankruptcy or get bought out. Does that mean my money is safe? I'm still thinking I need a financial planner....
- I got grown-up health insurance!
- I bought a TiVo and it changed my life.
- The girl that swore up and down she'd never go to grad school (that'd be me) graduated with her master's degree.
- My best friend got married. (Did I mention she's younger than I am?) And she bought a house. And a new car. And went on a supercool honeymoon. Did I mention I feel old?


All of this makes me think about next year, and what type of resolutions I might like to make. These are things I usually decide in December and promptly forget about in January. I try to keep them practical enough (because we all know I'm NOT going to workout and I'm NOT going to suddenly start saving my money instead of shopping all the time). So this year I think I'll resolve to start flossing regularly and buying fresh flowers so my apartment smells more outdoorsy than what Bath and Body Works Wallflowers can deliver me.

Since a new semester is starting, I want to look at resolutions I can make for that. Having my evaluation meeting recently also put this in the forefront of my mind. Don't let me give you the wrong idea - I had a really great eval. My ideas pretty much lined up with that of my supervisor's and it's nice to know that even though I get frustrated and sometimes feel like my building sucks, I know that I'm still doing all that I can and getting my work done. So, I want to look at what I can do next semester to make my ability at performing my job even better. Like putting my foot down when I want to instead of wavering and being a doormat. Or delegating tasks to people instead of thinking all the time that it won't get done right unless I do it myself (although I'll secretly know that this is true and instead just try and chill out enough to actually let someone else give it a shot). Maintaining my cheerleader disposition in times when I really just want to scream and cry and yell about what's going on with my staff/department.

I think I should also resolve to be a better blogger, and to spend some of that time I waste on facebook actually writing posts and organizing my thoughts :)

"This became a credo of mine: attempt the impossible in order to improve your work."

Above quote from Bette Davis, a famous American actress who was in a lot of movies primarily in the 30s and 40s but continued acting into her later years.



I am learning quite a bit about myself through evaluations. Each of my staff members fills out an eval about me and my performance and it’s been interesting to read them and go over each one. There have been certain trends amongst the staff – I wonder if they pre-discussed everything they would be writing. They are all frustrated with the same things, most of them seem satisfied with everything I’ve been doing, but perhaps the biggest surprise has been that many of them wish that they knew more about me/that I was more open about my life.

For the people that know me well, this might be hilarious. I usually can’t stop talking about anything, and I’m pretty forthcoming with information about me and what’s going on in my world. I came into this job knowing that I didn’t want to have a completely open relationship with my staff. I figured that I would let them define what kind of relationship they would like to have with me. Most of them ask how I’m doing but don’t go more in depth than that, and so I don’t ask anything that’s too personal about themselves. They don’t ask any questions about much of anything, something that’s always been interesting to me since they see my apartment on a regular basis – a place that has many pictures and random artifacts of my life. And for that matter, my office is a pretty personalized place as well. I guess they’ve been waiting for me to volunteer information or at least seem more open about answering questions (although I didn't know that I wasn't).

Instead I've started to let certain things slip....more stories about my life and my friends, important people to me, etc. I've started talking to one of my RAs that stops by my office frequently and I'm curious to see if the information is getting dispersed like I think it might be. I'm trying to come up with a way to handle next semester a little differently. Maybe some sort of icebreaker for the start of the semester that has to do with storytelling. We'll see what I can cook up.

I have to admit that it's been harder than I thought to keep up with my writing this semester. Time just seems to fly by and before I know it weeks have gone by and I've done more than just neglect my posting. I forget to return emails and phone calls and let too much time go by without seeing people - in particular one of my college friends that lives about an hour from me whom I haven't seen since July. Full Time life is way busier than I ever thought it would be.