Pick Me-Choose Me-Hire Me #9- Priorities
If you knew this was your last day on Earth, how would you wanna spend it? ~Grey's AnatomyIt has been (simultaneously) a great and horrific week for me. There was an incident on campus that I somehow found myself to be in the middle of, even though it really didn't have anything to do with me or my position. It made me clarify many of my professional values which, I suppose, is a good thing, but it isn't exactly a fun process. The whole thing was just very draining. Thankfully, the situation worked itself out and in turn, I have been absolutely amazed and in awe of many students in my professional world. They mobilized themselves in ways that I have never seen before and the end result was something that I didn't really think was possible. In turn, my faith in the profession has been restored.
On a much lighter note, I think I've realized that I actually do want to go into Residence Life. As I was reading the last entry by Media Res, I realized that I actually like the unexpected aspects to Residence Life. While I am a hard-core MBTI "J" I like not ever having a typical day at work. A perfect example of this was a blog by Makenzie, one of my new RAs:
"At one point this evening, I was eating a warm chocolate chip cookie and wandering around the back room wearing a plastic police vest and attempting to pronounce the warnings written in foreign languages on a shredder box. So were Riley and our supervisor. Just another day in the life of an Res. Life staff member. Who knew a job could be so fun?"
Riley's recent Xanga post:
"I finally let a little bit of it sink in and I just started to cry...these people have become my family, this building my home. I started thinking how we warned all the new people, etc. that once training is over we never see as much of each other, and while that may be true for a few staff members, for the majority of us, the opposite of that has occurred. We're ALWAYS down in the back room, we've all become so comfortable with each other. Tonight after a Taco Bell run, when I was just chatting it up with two of the guy RAs about random stuff, I realized how much they have become like brothers to me. I am going to miss everyone so much. Uhhhh I can't even fathom not being here! I mean I know I will still see a lot of these people, but it won't be the same, and some won't even be in the state anymore!"
The combination of these two posts pretty much sum up how I feel about Residence Life. I love the random, unexpected nature of this job. Additionally, the bonds that are created and the feeling of becoming a family is (in my opinion) unrivaled in other functional areas of Student Affairs. I think there is an unspoken bond that occurs within staff members in a residence hall and it is something that I want to continue to be a part of as I grow as a professional. In short, if I knew this was my last day on Earth, I would want to be surrounded by the people that I love and the people that I consider to be my family. I would want to be surrounded by my staff.
PS I have my first phone interview this week with my dream school! Scary/exciting/thrilling/nerve racking!
posted by StudentAffairs.com @ 12:34 PM
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