Above quote from e.e. cummings, an American poet from the 20th century who is perhaps most famous for his lack of capitalization, punctuation, and attention to sentence detail. I think he was amazing, and part of the influence on me and my poetry-writing style.
Ahh, the snow day. A simple event that can instantly strike fear in the hearts and minds of any residence life professional. An event that many of us are dealing with these days, and something that always proves to be interesting and keep you on your toes. It's not just about the college/university shutting down, it's about cancelling huge events that have been planned for months, students going crazy in the building and coming up with new (and often dangerous) ways to amuse themselves, and trying rearrange your schedule to accomodate the new appointments that will creep up because of it.
I have spent my snow day working (albeit minimally) and watching House. I'm refusing to leave my apartment and have been digging through my pantry trying to find something that I can assemble together that might resemble a meal. I've yelled at students and watched other people yell at students. I see students wandering around outside in SHORTS (forget about the cold - there's a lot of snow out there!). I truly believe that when these things happen students lose all sense and wits and turn into animals. Today has only reinforced this.
I'm hoping for a calm evening and that tomorrow will see a return to normalcy. It's too snowy to go outside and cause a ruckus, right?
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord."
Above quote from President Barack Obama's inauguration speech today. Read on for more info.
One of the things I love most about my job is the total autonomy that I have. Not only do I manage my own building, making my own decisions, and create my own standards for my staff, but I also have complete reign over my schedule and my time. It's this sort of thing that allowed me to take off a decent part of the day to sit in front of my TV and watch CNN as they gave me incredible coverage of the inauguration of President Obama. In fact, I'm STILL watching it; now I'm seeing all the balls and the dances and thinking about how incredible those parties must be.
I realized the other day that I can remember watching the inauguration of the last few 4 year increments. Part of me wonders if I remember seeing a recap on the evening news or actually watching them in real time.....shouldn't I have been in school? Did I manage to convince my mom to let me stay home? I'm not really sure, but I have vivid memories of watching President Clinton take oath (the first time, I think) and I would've been fairly young at the time. I remember lots of his campaign against then President Bush Sr. and Ross Perot; I even remember watching the debates. While politics has been a part of growing up for me (I remember campaigning for my school levys to be passed and constantly aware of what was going on in the world) it seems to have been fallen by the wayside. Today as I watched all of this I decided that I should become a more politically minded individual and get a better grasp on the hot topics of the day. Since I feel like I'll officially become an adult when I turn 25 this spring, this seems fitting.
Anyway, I decided to check out the new http://www.whitehouse.gov that CNN kept discussing and immediately settled on the biographies of those important people of this administration. I was immediately reminded of how education-minded the Obamas and Bidens are, especially with higher education:
First Lady Michelle worked for the University of Chicago for many years, including serving as Associate Dean of Student Services and Vice President of Community and External Affairs for the medical center.
President Barack taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Jill Biden (Mrs. Vice-President) has taught English for years at the Delaware Technical and Community College [ahhh, how my heart soars at this because of my experience at the small community college-esque campus]. She just earned her Ph.D in 2007 but that's okay because she's been busy raising her family and earning TWO master's degrees (in English and Reading). Oh, and she had on knee-high boots today. That furthers my intital thought that I LIKE her :)
All of this gives me a good feeling, especially once I browsed the agenda on Education (also available at the White House site). One of the things that made me smile was the idea that the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) could be eliminated and replaced with a check box on your tax form. As someone who has experience working in Financial Aid (especially with assisting families with filling out this form).....well, I can't really express the amount of frustration that could be eliminated and the number of families who would probably receive aid who do not currently because of the complication of the form. Wow.
So....today has not been about work for me. It's not been about what I'm working on, what's on my list of things to do, or what's happening in my building. Today has been about what the world will look like in the next 4 years, and what we can hope to see in the future. It's about change and new beginnings, no matter where you live or who you voted for.
One of the things I love most about my job is the total autonomy that I have. Not only do I manage my own building, making my own decisions, and create my own standards for my staff, but I also have complete reign over my schedule and my time. It's this sort of thing that allowed me to take off a decent part of the day to sit in front of my TV and watch CNN as they gave me incredible coverage of the inauguration of President Obama. In fact, I'm STILL watching it; now I'm seeing all the balls and the dances and thinking about how incredible those parties must be.
I realized the other day that I can remember watching the inauguration of the last few 4 year increments. Part of me wonders if I remember seeing a recap on the evening news or actually watching them in real time.....shouldn't I have been in school? Did I manage to convince my mom to let me stay home? I'm not really sure, but I have vivid memories of watching President Clinton take oath (the first time, I think) and I would've been fairly young at the time. I remember lots of his campaign against then President Bush Sr. and Ross Perot; I even remember watching the debates. While politics has been a part of growing up for me (I remember campaigning for my school levys to be passed and constantly aware of what was going on in the world) it seems to have been fallen by the wayside. Today as I watched all of this I decided that I should become a more politically minded individual and get a better grasp on the hot topics of the day. Since I feel like I'll officially become an adult when I turn 25 this spring, this seems fitting.
Anyway, I decided to check out the new http://www.whitehouse.gov that CNN kept discussing and immediately settled on the biographies of those important people of this administration. I was immediately reminded of how education-minded the Obamas and Bidens are, especially with higher education:
First Lady Michelle worked for the University of Chicago for many years, including serving as Associate Dean of Student Services and Vice President of Community and External Affairs for the medical center.
President Barack taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Jill Biden (Mrs. Vice-President) has taught English for years at the Delaware Technical and Community College [ahhh, how my heart soars at this because of my experience at the small community college-esque campus]. She just earned her Ph.D in 2007 but that's okay because she's been busy raising her family and earning TWO master's degrees (in English and Reading). Oh, and she had on knee-high boots today. That furthers my intital thought that I LIKE her :)
All of this gives me a good feeling, especially once I browsed the agenda on Education (also available at the White House site). One of the things that made me smile was the idea that the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) could be eliminated and replaced with a check box on your tax form. As someone who has experience working in Financial Aid (especially with assisting families with filling out this form).....well, I can't really express the amount of frustration that could be eliminated and the number of families who would probably receive aid who do not currently because of the complication of the form. Wow.
So....today has not been about work for me. It's not been about what I'm working on, what's on my list of things to do, or what's happening in my building. Today has been about what the world will look like in the next 4 years, and what we can hope to see in the future. It's about change and new beginnings, no matter where you live or who you voted for.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
"There is no substitute for hard work."
Above quote comes from Thomas Edison, American businessman and inventor. Credited with the creation of many items, he is perhaps most widely known for inventing the light bulb. There also exist over 1,000 US patents in his name, as well as some scattered in Germany, France, and the UK. I think he definitely knows what's talking about in terms of hard work.
I was totally unprepared for what this semester was going to bring me. When I mentally prepared to come back, when I wrote my last post on Saturday, when I actually started back up at work in my office…..I still had no idea what this was going to look like. And wow, what a shock all of this is.
I am BURIED in work. So buried, in fact, that I have no right to actually be taking time out of my day to be writing this post. I am in between meetings with students right now, the time when I should be catching up on emails, writing recommendations, working on projects. I keep watching my Outlook show me new emails in the bottom of my screen and I am ignoring them. I keep adding more meetings to my calendar as students email me wanting face time. I keep adding more and more things to the piles on my desk (and my other chairs in the office) that I’ll get to eventually….just not right now. And over the past 4 days I’ve realized that my stress level has rocketed and there’s nothing I can do to change it….and that it’s probably ALWAYS going to be like this at the start of each semester. Holy shit – what did I sign up for?
I thought that this semester was going to be a little easier than others. I signed up to teach a class as something extra because I couldn’t imagine what I would be doing with my time otherwise. I am thrilled to get this experience, and I’m hoping I will be able to help/influence the 11 students who are currently enrolled, but I forgot how much time it takes to prep for a class even when everything is already outlined for you. I’ve been moving like a whirling dervish (as my mother would say) to get things completed in time and have a good grasp on what I’m teaching each class meeting. Now I have things to grade, assignments to explain, and more prep work ahead of me. I am excited about it, don’t get me wrong, but I definitely didn’t budget for all of this.
I have a major project I’m working on that’s sucking up most of my time. Maybe that’s not the best way to say it…..enveloping all of my time? Completely all-encompassing any time that I might have thought I may have? I keep catching little errors that just bother me and feel like it’s never going to be perfect – which for some people is no big deal, but for me is definitely a REALLY big deal. I never considered myself an actual perfectionist until I started this job and realized how many people around me do things to near-perfection, so bringing a half-assed attempt is definitely NOT acceptable. I’m making it harder on myself in hopes that the end result will be amazing….I can only hope.
And then there’s the matter of next year…..it’s time to decide where I’d like to be within our halls and try and articulate why. With rumors flying around our department, it’s hard to keep track of who is interested in working with what, and why. It’s turned into a more pensive time for me than what I was anticipating….I’ve starting thinking more and more about what I’m looking for out of my second year experience here and who I want to work with and FOR. Interesting developments within the department has made me think harder about everything, and now I’m trying to make decisions.
I am thankful that tomorrow is Friday AND it’s a 3-day weekend for me. I am hoping to be able to walk out of my office on Friday afternoon and not walk back in until Tuesday morning. Working on the weekend is definitely NOT what I want to do, but if I don’t start crossing things off on my to-do list it may be unavoidable….which means I should probably stop blogging and start working :)
I was totally unprepared for what this semester was going to bring me. When I mentally prepared to come back, when I wrote my last post on Saturday, when I actually started back up at work in my office…..I still had no idea what this was going to look like. And wow, what a shock all of this is.
I am BURIED in work. So buried, in fact, that I have no right to actually be taking time out of my day to be writing this post. I am in between meetings with students right now, the time when I should be catching up on emails, writing recommendations, working on projects. I keep watching my Outlook show me new emails in the bottom of my screen and I am ignoring them. I keep adding more meetings to my calendar as students email me wanting face time. I keep adding more and more things to the piles on my desk (and my other chairs in the office) that I’ll get to eventually….just not right now. And over the past 4 days I’ve realized that my stress level has rocketed and there’s nothing I can do to change it….and that it’s probably ALWAYS going to be like this at the start of each semester. Holy shit – what did I sign up for?
I thought that this semester was going to be a little easier than others. I signed up to teach a class as something extra because I couldn’t imagine what I would be doing with my time otherwise. I am thrilled to get this experience, and I’m hoping I will be able to help/influence the 11 students who are currently enrolled, but I forgot how much time it takes to prep for a class even when everything is already outlined for you. I’ve been moving like a whirling dervish (as my mother would say) to get things completed in time and have a good grasp on what I’m teaching each class meeting. Now I have things to grade, assignments to explain, and more prep work ahead of me. I am excited about it, don’t get me wrong, but I definitely didn’t budget for all of this.
I have a major project I’m working on that’s sucking up most of my time. Maybe that’s not the best way to say it…..enveloping all of my time? Completely all-encompassing any time that I might have thought I may have? I keep catching little errors that just bother me and feel like it’s never going to be perfect – which for some people is no big deal, but for me is definitely a REALLY big deal. I never considered myself an actual perfectionist until I started this job and realized how many people around me do things to near-perfection, so bringing a half-assed attempt is definitely NOT acceptable. I’m making it harder on myself in hopes that the end result will be amazing….I can only hope.
And then there’s the matter of next year…..it’s time to decide where I’d like to be within our halls and try and articulate why. With rumors flying around our department, it’s hard to keep track of who is interested in working with what, and why. It’s turned into a more pensive time for me than what I was anticipating….I’ve starting thinking more and more about what I’m looking for out of my second year experience here and who I want to work with and FOR. Interesting developments within the department has made me think harder about everything, and now I’m trying to make decisions.
I am thankful that tomorrow is Friday AND it’s a 3-day weekend for me. I am hoping to be able to walk out of my office on Friday afternoon and not walk back in until Tuesday morning. Working on the weekend is definitely NOT what I want to do, but if I don’t start crossing things off on my to-do list it may be unavoidable….which means I should probably stop blogging and start working :)
Saturday, January 10, 2009
"Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness."
Above quote is from Richard Carlson, an American author, psychotherapist, and motivational speaker who is most famous for writing Don't Sweat the Small Stuff (and a handful of other books related to this one) I think it's quite accurrate, and perhaps best explains that there really IS something wrong with me since I work in a field where stress is just a part of life.
There is nothing quite like returning to your job after having a glorious two week vacation. I spent my time off away from here and back in my hometown. I watched an unhealthy amount of TV, took naps nearly everyday, went out with my friends every night, and dreaded having to come back to work. I knew it was going to stink, but I didn't know just how much.
Packing up and coming back was harder than I was expecting. While I definitely missed having my own apartment and all my stuff around me and missed my friends here, I did NOT want to leave and be miles and miles from my friends and family. I cried for a portion of my trip back, which isn't surprising since crying is one of the things that I do best. I got back, unpacked, and enjoyed the fact that my building was SILENT and that I didn't need to worry about a thing.....and then the next day started.....
It's been nonstop ever since. I've been working with my staff, working with my collegues, working in my office. The committee work I do has kept me ridiculously busy since I got back, and I can expect that to continue for quite a while. Here it is, Saturday, and I'm in my office working on things so I don't have to try and balance everything on Monday when I come in. I am hopeful that tomorrow will be peaceful and have few glitches as my building reopens. I want nothing more than to sleep in and lay around all day before the week starts and I am hit with so much more to do.
My to-do list is growing as I keep remembering things that I need to work on. I'm teaching a class this semester and it starts on Monday, meaning that I should probably take a minute and develop a lesson plan for EXACTLY what is going to happen. I have student meetings already set up for the first few days, and I should probably look to see what it is I need to do during them and what I need to say. My calendar needs updated, I have papers to read through, an RA to meet with, recommendations for students need written, and oh yeah - it's about that time when I need to sit and make a final decision on whether or not I'm returning to my position next year and, if so, what community I would like to work with.
I guess I'm making this seem like I'm a lot more unhappy than what I actually am. I love to be busy (maybe not THIS busy....) and even though I get really frustrated at times, I love this job. I only wish I could've had the chance to ease back into work instead of getting tossed in the deep end - and after all, I can't even swim!!
There is nothing quite like returning to your job after having a glorious two week vacation. I spent my time off away from here and back in my hometown. I watched an unhealthy amount of TV, took naps nearly everyday, went out with my friends every night, and dreaded having to come back to work. I knew it was going to stink, but I didn't know just how much.
Packing up and coming back was harder than I was expecting. While I definitely missed having my own apartment and all my stuff around me and missed my friends here, I did NOT want to leave and be miles and miles from my friends and family. I cried for a portion of my trip back, which isn't surprising since crying is one of the things that I do best. I got back, unpacked, and enjoyed the fact that my building was SILENT and that I didn't need to worry about a thing.....and then the next day started.....
It's been nonstop ever since. I've been working with my staff, working with my collegues, working in my office. The committee work I do has kept me ridiculously busy since I got back, and I can expect that to continue for quite a while. Here it is, Saturday, and I'm in my office working on things so I don't have to try and balance everything on Monday when I come in. I am hopeful that tomorrow will be peaceful and have few glitches as my building reopens. I want nothing more than to sleep in and lay around all day before the week starts and I am hit with so much more to do.
My to-do list is growing as I keep remembering things that I need to work on. I'm teaching a class this semester and it starts on Monday, meaning that I should probably take a minute and develop a lesson plan for EXACTLY what is going to happen. I have student meetings already set up for the first few days, and I should probably look to see what it is I need to do during them and what I need to say. My calendar needs updated, I have papers to read through, an RA to meet with, recommendations for students need written, and oh yeah - it's about that time when I need to sit and make a final decision on whether or not I'm returning to my position next year and, if so, what community I would like to work with.
I guess I'm making this seem like I'm a lot more unhappy than what I actually am. I love to be busy (maybe not THIS busy....) and even though I get really frustrated at times, I love this job. I only wish I could've had the chance to ease back into work instead of getting tossed in the deep end - and after all, I can't even swim!!
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