Lots to think about...

I've spent four amazing days at ACPA's Residential Curriculum Institute and now I have A LOT to think about. I was the only person from my institution attending; I'd hoped I could convince a few colleagues to go with me but that didn't work out. I could have waited - maybe given it another year to see if more staff members expressed interest, but waiting and patience was never my strong suit. Besides, I've wanted to go to this institute since I first heard about the residential curriculum at ACPA four years ago and this year I could finally get some financial support from my instituion.

The institute was great. I think I learned more here than at any other conference I've been to. At ACPA and other regional and national conferences, I always struggle with picking sessions; sometimes you're lucky and it's a great session and sometimes it just wasn't exactly what you expected. Besides, I usually end up going to a variety of sessions, so I have all these different ideas and thoughts but nothing in depth or detail. Over the past years, the most important thing for me at national conferences has been time spent with the commission I'm serving on and connecting with colleagues. But this institute - it was just great. Since everything focused on one specific topic, I felt like I really got the chance to think about this, dig deep and look at it from various angles. Sessions were building off each other. At times, I felt like my head was going to explode from getting all this information and trying to make sense of it - and especially figuring out how I could apply that and go about convincing others at my institution to consider this approach. Part of me thinks I need to start little - but how do you start a shift in philosophy on a small scale? But then again, how do I convince people that, even though I just started working there this year, they should listen to me and totally reevaluate what they've been doing. Oh man, I'm getting a headache again. Haha.

I have about a million notes (no kidding!) from this institute as well as handouts and worksheets from various session. I thought about looking through those tonight and figuring out how I can organize them. But then I got totally overwhelmed and decided I deserved a night off and I could start thinking about all that tomorrow - or maybe on Monday; we'll see.

Other than that: I really enjoyed my time away. I love my job, I really do; but sometimes it's just nice to get away. Even if I don't have to work one weekend (and let's be honest, that doesn't happen all that often), you still don't feel like you're REALLY away from work when your apartment is in the building you work in. Even if there isn't a single phone call or knock on my door, I don't feel as relaxed and refreshed as when I get far far away from school. So I've loved being here. It was kind of like the best of both worlds (ha - now I'm going to have that Hannah Montana song stuck in my head for the rest of the night - oh dear, I really need to stop watching Disneychannel...LoL): thinking about student learning and learning outcomes and residence life all day and then coming back to the hotel and relaxing or meeting up with non-reslife friends. That's probably been the best part: I have some friends here that aren't ResLife people (those kind of friends are rare!!!!) and I got a chance to hang out with a few of them. And even though they sometimes ask me about work and I tell them all my little stories, it's so different than talking with a ResLifer about it, you know.

Oh and one of my friends gave me one of the nicest compliments ever... The two of us don't agree on a lot of things (politics, religion, etc.) but we still have these really serious discussions about it and I love those because he really makes me think about things differently or at least re-evaluate my own beliefs. And he said that he likes that I am open-minded and don't make him feel bad for not agreeing with him - and I loved hearing that. I think I mostly loved it because I know that I wasn't always that open-minded. I was one of those liberals and activists who prided herself in being open-minded but then totally wasn't toward people who weren't as "open-minded" as me or didn't agree with me. And that's bugged me for a while and I've been trying to change it. And I know I'm still not there but maybe I'm getting better. Ha. Maybe there is hope for me....