“But if you never try, you’ll never know”
My apologies to my blog readers (aka mom and dad) for the lack of updates. So here it goes… fitting over a month into one probably long update.
So to start out, A&M updates.
As I kind of anticipated, I have absolutely fallen in love with this school. Even though some people challenged my decision to do my internship at a large school, I feel as though my experience here has really confirmed that I do want to work at a large institution. I understand that it may be harder to find a job doing what I really want to do (working with first year students) at first, and that I may have to work at a smaller school to start. However, long term I would like to work for a large institution and will not give up on that dream. Only being about five to six months away from starting my job search is terrifying and exciting all at the same time. I am so blessed to have had this opportunity and will be forever thankful that the NSP office offered me this position (especially when A&M was my one “it will never happen” application— I guess sometimes we do get what we want). I love the crazy traditions here, and really admire the contagious school spirit. If I had an opportunity to come back to College Station to work full-time I think I would take it (plus I am interested in their PhD program).
Since the last time I updated I did a few things that are worthy of mentioning.
1. The NSP staff (minus Meredith who was in Destin, FL) went to the University of Houston to observe their orientation program. It was fun to go through an orientation that I was not all invested in, as it was easy to look at it very objectively. Though we did not see much of Houston other than the university and the restaurant we ate dinner at (which was an adventure in itself due to the waiter spilling my water on my plate, excessive sweating), it seemed like a great city.
Here is the NSP staff in the bookstore of U of H. We pictured messaged this to Meredith to wish her son Jackson a happy first birthday!
Also, because I am excellent at creeping Facebook I found this picture from the pep rally at U of H’s orientation. NSP staff can be spotted on the top row :).
2. I was a little sad about spending my birthday 1,000 miles away from my friends and family, but I had a fantastic birthday here in Aggieland. My co-workers remembered me mentioning my love for “Ammie cake” (aka Texas Sheet Cake) and made sure to have it at our staff meeting. Funny story, apparently no one in Texas is aware of this cake and all claim it must be a “northern thing”. More research will have to be done to determine why this delicious cake is at all associated with Texas. Anyway, I started my birthday with check-in for conferences at Kyle Field. Not a bad start to my 23rd year! The Check-in OLs sang happy birthday to me, and I was required to wear a birthday sticker all day. I ended my birthday with online class with my cohort friends. Overall, it was a great birthday!
3. In the past month I also went on a leadership retreat with my students. As part of my co-advising duties I was able to choose weather I wanted to oversee the students on the leadership retreat committee or the banquet committee. I felt as though there was a little more weight to carry with the leadership retreat as it is an important part of training/development for the OLs— so I challenged myself by joining that committee. Really my students did all of the planning, and they totally rocked. I was so proud of everything they did, and was happy I got to go as it was my first time meeting most of the OLs (there are 80 students, and I really only see them in passing at conference events). Below are some photos one of my fabulous students took at the retreat.
My group figuring out how to get everyone (and a “vaccine”) to an unpictured hulahoop island.
Group jumproping.
In the afternoon of the retreat we did a high ropes course. I was a little nervous, but I felt like I should participate in order to set an example for my students. I have no pictures of that portion as we all had specific jobs in order to belay our teammates. I did take a picture of the course we did after we finished. It is hard to tell from this picture, but we had to climb up a pole and then walk across the inclined log. After reaching the other end we climbed a little higher and walked across a wire to the other end. It was a lot of fun!
4. I recently had the chance to meet the Texas A&M Yell Leaders. They do a yell practice at our orientation sessions, and are fun guys (and also pretty much A&M celebrities). For more info about this tradition go to yell.tamu.edu.
The Fourth of July was pretty uneventful here. Most of Texas was unable to have fireworks due to the ridiculous drought. I was able to get some homework done which was great, as the due dates for everything are quickly approaching. I was also able to get out of my room a bit to meet up with a friend of a friend, who was also nice enough to take me to a cook out today with his church group. I of course brought my own veggie burger with me as I am likely the only person in the state of Texas who does not eat meat.
Speaking of not eating meat, I was going to go into my observations of Texas after I did my A&M updates, but it is 12:30 and I have work tomorrow. So, to be continued… next up my outsider observations (and some generalizations) about the great state of Texas (I’ll do this tomorrow, I promise!).
