Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Craziness

Let the insanity officially begin. Soccer and volleyball players moved in this weekend. It's beginning...the madness...

I have this week to get everything organized for Orientation Week which begins on Friday with a staff meeting for all of my student workers - who basically do my bidding for a week and get a free trip to the coast out of it. I will now be working 19 days in a row - as are many people aroung campus. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be a martyr here, just sharing part of life that is this time of year. Somewhere in there I will be celebrating my 31st birthday. I have a feeling it will be a bit of a let down after last year's soiree!

Say some prayers for all of us getting our students here and settled. I know that there will be days that I will want to explode, sleep, cry, quit and punch everyone in the face...I can do the exhausted and the crying but I can't explode, quit or punch anyone in the face.

I'll see you on the flip side.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Generation Me

I finished Generation Me a couple of weeks ago. The author is a generational psychologist and professor as well as a GenMe'er. The book gave me insight into some of my own tendencies and was very helpful in understanding the students I encounter on a daily basis. If you would like a good read on understanding people born from 1970-2000, I recommend this book. I want everyone to read it: those of us that fall in the category, people I work with, our parents, EVERYONE! She is funny and smart. Great book.

WARNING: If you're a big proponent of the "self-esteem movement" I don't think you're going to like this book. I do think you should still read it because she makes some fantastic points about the damage we're doing to children when we're more concerned about them feeling good over learning, behaving appropriately, and taking responsibility for their actions.

Friday, August 03, 2007

life updated

As the end of a very hectic work week quickly approaches I am sitting at my desk eating lunch thinking how to update my fearless readers on the happenings of my life.

I've not been sure of whether or not it was time for me to move on from my current employment situation for a year or so. I love what I do most days. I consider myself to be blessed to have found work that I'm excited about, enjoy doing it and think I'm pretty good at( I say all of this to say that I have good days and bad days at work like everyone). I recognize that not everyone is afforded this luxury. I know plenty of people who have to work jobs they don't enjoy but need to pay bills. I digress.

I've been uncertain of the direction to take my career development. This summer I applied for three different positions at three different universities, two in Seattle and one in Texas. After a long summer of uncertainty, I was offered a position at the university in Texas - just last week. They wanted me to be in Texas by next weekend. After time of weighing my options I decided that it was best for me to decline the offer at this time. I struggled with this decision because along with a great opportunity for work was an opportunity for grad school. I would have been able to get the degree in Student Affairs in Higher Ed at a greatly reduced price. So, it was hard to say no but I didn't feel like I could get myself to Texas at the time requested and I didn't feel like it would be very fair to my current employer to leave during this time of year (I'm in charge of our new student orientation program that begins in 2 weeks).

After a long, anxiety- filled summer, I am at peace with staying where I am for now. There are some really exciting possibilities here for me. I am going to pursue a graduate program - you can all pray that I get accepted to one and that I will find the funding to finance the education. I will update you when I know more about what my position may look like here. Today I'm officially changing my mood on the sidebar to peaceful.

On that note, I need to go back to work because it's crazy around here. Making housing assignments has not gone smoothly this year. AT ALL!