Getting ready

Our RAs are coming back in one week; one week after that the RHA Executive Board will move in, three days after that my Learning Community Leaders will be there and then just two days later is First-Year Move-in and the next day, everyone else will be able to move back in.

The summer went by way too fast - as always. It's tough to believe that students will be back so soon. And yes, I still stand by what I said - I can't wait for them to get back. That doesn't mean though that I'd love to have a couple more weeks to get everything ready. ;) I'm just not ready; there's too much to do and not enough time. How does that always happen? We know students come back on a certain day and we have all summer to get ready - but then the last couple weeks are stressful and crazy. I tried to be better about it this year and did some things early, but there are so many things that I couldn't do yet because I was waiting for things from other people. Waiting to get the RA Training schedule, so I could start thinking about In-Area Times and figure out how to squeeze in my Learning Community Leaders training. Waiting for others to review things, so I could finish them. Waiting for my students to send me information, so I can plan more things for them. Waiting for our new Faculty Director to get here, so I can finalize lesson plans for my first-year student class and figure out details for our Learning Community Leaders course/experience.

Sometimes, when I let myself think about all the things I need to do this Fall, I get totally freaked out. I definitely feel like I've taken on too much and when I tried to get rid of a few things, that didn't go over so well and I'm still stuck with almost everything. The problem is that I don't think anyone realizes how much I actually have on my plate. I tried to figure out the hours that I'll be spending in meetings and one-on-one's this summer and I ended up with about 33-34 hours a week; that's just not feasible. Where will I find time to get any work done? Or be visible in the building (since that's supposedly one of our focus areas)?

But I need to stop talking about this or I'm going to get stressed out again. I guess I'll just have to take it one day at a time.

Yesterday, I spent quite a bit of time painting our office. Three walls of the outer office are now done; we just need to do the accent wall and door frames, etc. That shouldn't take too long. Painting has been kinda frustrating though. First it took a while to get the paint; then I couldn't get help to move furniture in the office and take down the bulletin boards. The walls looks horrible - but getting those wholes and scratches fixed was just not in the cards...so we painted over them. :) It doesn't look great but it looks better than before. And now, I'm almost out of light blue paint but I still have three walls in my office to do. I've asked for more but didn't get a response. Big surprise! Maybe I'll just go out and buy paint on my own. I know I shouldn't have to and it's slightly ridiculous, but I think it may be worth spending a couple bucks to save me from the stress and frustration of trying to get paint. And I want this office to be done before the RAs get here next weekend.

Today, I relaxed for a bit (shocker!), then spent some time making door tags for my RAs. I always have those "great" ideas for door tags that turn into way too complicated projects. Haha. This year, I bought them dry-erase boards (that's kind of a tradition for me) and am using foam to cut out their favorite animals and names - and all that gets glued to the dry-erase board. I also have 8 door tags to make for my Learning Community Leaders, plus 16+ door tags for conference chairs (for the regional conference we're hosting). I definitely won't get bored in the next few days.

Now I'm back in the office and will clean before moving some of the furniture back and trying to put up those bulletin boards again.

Good Luck to all the other ResLife staff members out there, who are going through trainnig and are getting ready for their RAs to return!

The things people tell me....

...I am too impatient. Hmm, yeah, granted, that's probably true. But how can you be patient when you're passionate about a new idea or initiative and nothing is happening to make it come true? How can you be patient when all you're being told is that "we are not ready for that yet"? Okay, yes, maybe we are not but how will we ever get ready if we're not working to get ready? What's going to get better if we just sit around and do nothing? I'd rather have not enough patience - and get things done - than be too patient and never move forward.

...I need to work on having balance in my life. Yeah, easier said than done. So you tell me I should have balance in my life but at the same time you give me more stuff to do than what's feasible to get done in even an extra-long work week? Take this semester for example: I'm teaching a 3-credit learning community course, I'm co-teaching a 1-credit learning community class, I'm supervising a grad assistant (which used to be equal to having a committee assignment...we need to have two committees or taskforces total...but apparently that may be changing...who knows), I'm one of the RHA advisors, I'm the main advisor for the regional conference our RHA is hosting (which could really be a full-time job on its own), I'm doing all the work of the faculty-director of not just one but TWO learning communities right now (we have very MIA faculty for one of the communities I work and the second one is getting a visiting faculty member as the director for this year...just a one-year thing though...but that faculty member hasn't started yet and will need some time to learn about the community and her role; which doesn't give us time to plan things for Opening and the First Five Weeks...or doesn't help me when faculty members from other communities are contacting me now to ask about collaborations and ideas of what we're doing for our community or when grad assistants have questions about their job related to the learning community), I've started a new Learning Community Leader (LCL) program (the one I'm teaching the 3-credit course for) which means I will also have to find the time to meet with all my LCLs for one-on-one's, oh and then the Assessment Taskforce I was trying to quit...yeah, didn't work out so well and I guess I'm still going to have to help with various things for the taskforce. And yes, those all sound like AWESOME opportunities - and they are - but sometimes I just want to curl up in bed and sleep...and sometimes, just thinking about everything I need to get done makes me want to cry. I have no idea how I'll keep a semblance of sanity in my life this semester. And it's not for lack of trying on my part. I started taking ballroom dancing lessons again - I used to ballroom dance when I was in high school and I really miss it, but I never knew how to start again because I don't have a partner to dance with. Well, I figured, screw it - I'll just join a studio and dance on my own. And it's been awesome so far! 1) Because I'm getting away from campus and 2) because I've been dancing a bit with the dance instructors during private lessons and practice sessions - and it's freakin' amazing to dance with a partner who can actually dance. But while that helps me get away from campus, it also adds to my stress like tonight when I had to go back to the office at 11 pm because I hadn't gotten everything done before leaving for dance class. :(

...I suck at saying no. Yes, I do. But you know what, people suck at taking "no" for an answer. Because I will try to say no and then they'll talk me into still doing something. Couldn't they - knowing that I'm not good at saying no - be a little nicer on me and just stop bugging me after I said no once? Is that too much to ask for?