Hello friends,
I'll be MIA again for a little while. I'm leaving for India today - one of my best friends from college is getting married in India - and I will have very limited access to internet while I'm gone. But you can be sure that I'll have lots of new stories when I return. :) I may even post some pictures from my trip if you're lucky. ;)
Friday, May 21, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
It's been a while...
...and so much has happened.
One of my best friends from high school got married. She's the first one of the four of us to get married. Yes, it was high time that one of us made the leap. We're 28 after all. My mom had two children at that time. If you'd asked me when I was 10 what I'd be doing when I was 28, I'm sure I would have said that I'd have a couple children myself. But marriage and children have had to take a back seat when you go to college, then grad school and get a job. It's been the same for all of us and it seems to be a trend with my entire high school class.
But when one of your high school gets married, it makes you feel terribly grown up. I often like to pretend that I'm still 22 - 22's a good age. You can get into any bar in the US, you've finished at least the first part of college but you're still considered "young." I don't think I look like 28 either - and I definitely don't feel as I thought 28 would feel.
Back to the wedding: It was beautiful. The first part was on a boat on the Lake of Constance; then we stopped at a church in Germany and the reception was in a hotel in Germany. The bride looked gorgeous, there was lots of good food and there was some dancing - not enough for my taste but what can you expect when you're surrounded by physicists. ;) Haha.
The whole time I had this gnawing feeling in my stomach tough; would I have a job next year? where would I be next year? was I "just on vacation" as I liked to pretend or was I unemployed? We all know it's never a good idea to get on the wrong side of your supervisors - it's a small field and people in Student Affairs talk...would this one "bad-fit" ruin my entire career?
It's tough when everyone keeps asking you, "How are things in the US?" "You're in Florida now? How do you like it?" I gave a lot of vague answers and was glad when I could hide from people and their innocent questions.
On Thursday - the day prior to the wedding - I had gotten an e-mail from one of the schools I applied to telling me to keep an eye open for an e-mail from one of the Associate Directors from that school. Was that good news? It was a bit too vague for me to really rely on it. Of course, thanks to the time difference, there was no e-mail yet when I left for the wedding on Friday. The good thing about weddings is though that they are a great distraction. ;) I managed to barely think about that e-mail...but of course the second I got home, I turned on the computer. And there was an e-mail. It said that they wanted to call me and asked when would be a good time to call to give me an update on their Hall Director search. Good news??? It was still a bit to vague for my liking. Yes, they probably wouldn't call to tell me that I didn't get the job. But you can't count on that. I was trying really really hard not to get my hopes up.
It was a LONG weekend. It also didn't help that it rained most of the weekend and we were stuck in the house most of the time with the exception of a duty round as I like to call them - those are when you walk around town in horrible weather because there's nothing else you can do and you feel the need to go outside. Our family are quite the experts regarding those. LoL.
Monday morning I got another e-mail. The phone call would be coming that afternoon. I waited anxiously next to the phone.
I got an unofficial offer (just waiting for the paperwork to go through HR before it can be made official) and I accepted. :-) I'm no longer unemployed. Now I am really on vacation and I can forget last year...well, maybe not completely because you can learn a lot from the negative experience you've had; even if it's just learning how you wouldn't want to do things when you're in charge. But it feels good to be able to breathe freely again and to look forward to the future....
One of my best friends from high school got married. She's the first one of the four of us to get married. Yes, it was high time that one of us made the leap. We're 28 after all. My mom had two children at that time. If you'd asked me when I was 10 what I'd be doing when I was 28, I'm sure I would have said that I'd have a couple children myself. But marriage and children have had to take a back seat when you go to college, then grad school and get a job. It's been the same for all of us and it seems to be a trend with my entire high school class.
But when one of your high school gets married, it makes you feel terribly grown up. I often like to pretend that I'm still 22 - 22's a good age. You can get into any bar in the US, you've finished at least the first part of college but you're still considered "young." I don't think I look like 28 either - and I definitely don't feel as I thought 28 would feel.
Back to the wedding: It was beautiful. The first part was on a boat on the Lake of Constance; then we stopped at a church in Germany and the reception was in a hotel in Germany. The bride looked gorgeous, there was lots of good food and there was some dancing - not enough for my taste but what can you expect when you're surrounded by physicists. ;) Haha.
The whole time I had this gnawing feeling in my stomach tough; would I have a job next year? where would I be next year? was I "just on vacation" as I liked to pretend or was I unemployed? We all know it's never a good idea to get on the wrong side of your supervisors - it's a small field and people in Student Affairs talk...would this one "bad-fit" ruin my entire career?
It's tough when everyone keeps asking you, "How are things in the US?" "You're in Florida now? How do you like it?" I gave a lot of vague answers and was glad when I could hide from people and their innocent questions.
On Thursday - the day prior to the wedding - I had gotten an e-mail from one of the schools I applied to telling me to keep an eye open for an e-mail from one of the Associate Directors from that school. Was that good news? It was a bit too vague for me to really rely on it. Of course, thanks to the time difference, there was no e-mail yet when I left for the wedding on Friday. The good thing about weddings is though that they are a great distraction. ;) I managed to barely think about that e-mail...but of course the second I got home, I turned on the computer. And there was an e-mail. It said that they wanted to call me and asked when would be a good time to call to give me an update on their Hall Director search. Good news??? It was still a bit to vague for my liking. Yes, they probably wouldn't call to tell me that I didn't get the job. But you can't count on that. I was trying really really hard not to get my hopes up.
It was a LONG weekend. It also didn't help that it rained most of the weekend and we were stuck in the house most of the time with the exception of a duty round as I like to call them - those are when you walk around town in horrible weather because there's nothing else you can do and you feel the need to go outside. Our family are quite the experts regarding those. LoL.
Monday morning I got another e-mail. The phone call would be coming that afternoon. I waited anxiously next to the phone.
I got an unofficial offer (just waiting for the paperwork to go through HR before it can be made official) and I accepted. :-) I'm no longer unemployed. Now I am really on vacation and I can forget last year...well, maybe not completely because you can learn a lot from the negative experience you've had; even if it's just learning how you wouldn't want to do things when you're in charge. But it feels good to be able to breathe freely again and to look forward to the future....
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
CRAZINESS....
The last few days have been insane. I've barely slept; I feel like I haven't stood still since Thursday, April 29. And no, I'm not just being a drama queen.
But let me start from the beginning.
Two weeks ago was Finals Week and we closed on Friday. I always enjoy the beginning of Finals Week. Students are busy studying for exams, the building is quiet (gotta love 24-hour quiet) and work seems to slow down for a second. And then, you hit the second part of the week and the insanity of closing starts.
The RAs have to deal with the majority of the stress. I've always prided myself in being a supervisor who tries to make sure that my RAs are doing well and aren't getting too stressed out. However, this year, I had a hard time figuring out ways to help them. Part of that, I think, is how we do closing here. Each RA is responsible for checking out their own residents - I mean, they know those students and have built relationships with them, so it seems to make sense. Residents also have the option to just drop off their key in an envelope and not have a staff member check them out; staff will just go into their room later to assess damage charges and make sure all their belongings have been moved out. This method is encouraged for students who do not have any damages in their room. So yes, having the RAs take care of their own residents seems to make sense at first. But that also means that Friday - the busiest day for check-out - the RAs are going to be busy all day. I know many of mine didn't really have a lunch break. I also had three graduates who were gone for part of their day and while I tried to help with those floors as much as possible (offering to have students check out with me, being present there on Friday afternoon), it was a challenge.
I'm used to doing a centralized check-out for each building. Staff would set up a table somewhere; once a student is ready to check out, he/she comes down and one of the RAs who is available at the time will go with the resident to his/her room and check them out quickly before retuning to the table. In this model, residents may not get the individualized attention that their own RA could provide, but they also don't have to worry about their RA's schedule. And for the RAs, it means that as their supervisor, I can come up with shifts - making sure that everyone gets a lunch break and maybe even another half-hour break - and it's easy for me as the professional staff member to jump in and maybe do a few check-outs myself.
Overall, Closing went pretty smoothly though. I did end up running around all day Friday - answering students' questions, helping the RAs with damage charges, doing some check-outs. I was also on-call for the campus, which didn't help. And once the residents were gone, it was time for building walk-through's. That took up my Friday night and basically all day Saturday. And then I was swamped with paperwork and knowing that I was leaving soon, I started working on that Saturday night and continued to work on it all day Sunday. I also started packing.
Then, last week, was full of last-minute errands, finishing up tasks, a random campus interview thrown in the middle (it was now or never, so in spite of the insanity of leaving for a day and a half during my last week of work which also happened to be the week after closing = the week of insane amounts of paperwork, I said NOW), goodbye parties, last outings with friends, packing, packing, packing, cleaning and and and. I pulled a few all-nighters and suddenly it was Friday and I was at the airport giving my friend who drove me to the airport one last hug and dragging my ridiculously large suitcase, my guitar and the bag with my laptop to the counter. A few hours later, I sank into the seat in my chair and immediately fell asleep.
Twenty hours later (which included two layovers at airport; a delayed flight which made me miss one of my connections; a very talkative seat neighbor on the longest leg of the flight; and a few hours of well-deserved sleep in very uncomfortable seats), I arrived in Germany where my friends picked me up and we headed to one of my friend's apartments for her bachelorette party. Now, another 30 hours or so later, I'm back in my old room in my parents' house.
These past couple of weeks were so packed with events, so hectic that I never got a chance to stand still and think about anything. I'm not sure how I feel about everything that happened. The fact that I won't be able to walk down to my friend's office anymore just to say hi; the fact that I've really left my old job and am now - UNEMPLOYED???; the fact that I'm back home in Austria. I feel like it's too much to grasp for my tired, exhausted brain. I need about a week of sleep and then I'll be able to tell you what I think and feel.
But let me start from the beginning.
Two weeks ago was Finals Week and we closed on Friday. I always enjoy the beginning of Finals Week. Students are busy studying for exams, the building is quiet (gotta love 24-hour quiet) and work seems to slow down for a second. And then, you hit the second part of the week and the insanity of closing starts.
The RAs have to deal with the majority of the stress. I've always prided myself in being a supervisor who tries to make sure that my RAs are doing well and aren't getting too stressed out. However, this year, I had a hard time figuring out ways to help them. Part of that, I think, is how we do closing here. Each RA is responsible for checking out their own residents - I mean, they know those students and have built relationships with them, so it seems to make sense. Residents also have the option to just drop off their key in an envelope and not have a staff member check them out; staff will just go into their room later to assess damage charges and make sure all their belongings have been moved out. This method is encouraged for students who do not have any damages in their room. So yes, having the RAs take care of their own residents seems to make sense at first. But that also means that Friday - the busiest day for check-out - the RAs are going to be busy all day. I know many of mine didn't really have a lunch break. I also had three graduates who were gone for part of their day and while I tried to help with those floors as much as possible (offering to have students check out with me, being present there on Friday afternoon), it was a challenge.
I'm used to doing a centralized check-out for each building. Staff would set up a table somewhere; once a student is ready to check out, he/she comes down and one of the RAs who is available at the time will go with the resident to his/her room and check them out quickly before retuning to the table. In this model, residents may not get the individualized attention that their own RA could provide, but they also don't have to worry about their RA's schedule. And for the RAs, it means that as their supervisor, I can come up with shifts - making sure that everyone gets a lunch break and maybe even another half-hour break - and it's easy for me as the professional staff member to jump in and maybe do a few check-outs myself.
Overall, Closing went pretty smoothly though. I did end up running around all day Friday - answering students' questions, helping the RAs with damage charges, doing some check-outs. I was also on-call for the campus, which didn't help. And once the residents were gone, it was time for building walk-through's. That took up my Friday night and basically all day Saturday. And then I was swamped with paperwork and knowing that I was leaving soon, I started working on that Saturday night and continued to work on it all day Sunday. I also started packing.
Then, last week, was full of last-minute errands, finishing up tasks, a random campus interview thrown in the middle (it was now or never, so in spite of the insanity of leaving for a day and a half during my last week of work which also happened to be the week after closing = the week of insane amounts of paperwork, I said NOW), goodbye parties, last outings with friends, packing, packing, packing, cleaning and and and. I pulled a few all-nighters and suddenly it was Friday and I was at the airport giving my friend who drove me to the airport one last hug and dragging my ridiculously large suitcase, my guitar and the bag with my laptop to the counter. A few hours later, I sank into the seat in my chair and immediately fell asleep.
Twenty hours later (which included two layovers at airport; a delayed flight which made me miss one of my connections; a very talkative seat neighbor on the longest leg of the flight; and a few hours of well-deserved sleep in very uncomfortable seats), I arrived in Germany where my friends picked me up and we headed to one of my friend's apartments for her bachelorette party. Now, another 30 hours or so later, I'm back in my old room in my parents' house.
These past couple of weeks were so packed with events, so hectic that I never got a chance to stand still and think about anything. I'm not sure how I feel about everything that happened. The fact that I won't be able to walk down to my friend's office anymore just to say hi; the fact that I've really left my old job and am now - UNEMPLOYED???; the fact that I'm back home in Austria. I feel like it's too much to grasp for my tired, exhausted brain. I need about a week of sleep and then I'll be able to tell you what I think and feel.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
