Adios August

And just like that, August is OVER!

Can you believe it? Tomorrow is September, the start of fall and football and all things pumpkin spice will be here!

3 months ago I was jobless and graduating with my Master's Degree. 6 months ago I was in a "I'm in denial about the real world" crisis and I dyed my hair a deep shade of red. 1 year ago I was getting to know and love my Southern Illinois comrades and only half way through my Salukiville adventure.

Sometimes it feels like a week is a century and other times it's like a whole year went by in a day.

I think I've said this only about a bajillion times in my blog, but TIME CAN JUST SLOW THE FREAK DOWN. Ok. Cool. Thanks.

My week has been epically crazy and busy and full of ups and downs and lots of hours spent feeling like I am chained to my desk and my phone and the next moment I'm running around throwing frisbees at thousands of students telling them to sign up for IM Sports and to try out our group exercise classes.

The first week of school was nuts as we had trainings for staff, welcome week festivities, convocation, a sport club retreat and way way more.

The girls in the officer were all on edge. It was not the funnest of atmospheres.

So I'll give a brief overview of everything in a real quick snapshot.

Convocation with 2,500ish freshman
Meeting the President of the University
Student Staff Training and meeting all the new students (new and old but all new to me)
IM/Club Sport Supervisor Training
Club Sport Retreat - Info session on all things Club Sport-y
Great Danetopia - huge event for Freshman and transfers with bounce houses, frisbee handouts, cornhole, live music, free food, torrential down pour in the middle of it all, but we played in the rain, and so much yelling I was hoarse for two days. It was super fun but it took an army of people and we were all exhausted after we we were finished and I really hope we don't do something like that any time soon.

Self explanatory.

Getting a hater tweet. Someone on twitter called me out by name and told the president and all of UAlbany that I was ruining club sports with my new rules.
Huge ego blow.
Getting a high-five from my boss for getting a hater tweet. Exact words were "If you aren't making anyone mad, you're not doing your job."
Faith in my abilities and ego restored.
First day of classes and I spent the ENTIRE day at my desk and only left for to go to the bathroom but I felt the need to apologize for leaving my post.
Second day of classes and I moved around a little more. Still didn't hit my step goal on fitbit.
Third day of classes and every club president and their mother came into my office hours to talk. It was like a parade.
Went to Rugby practice (Every job from UC Davis, SIU and UAlbany, I always always work with Rugby first.) and introduced myself to the coaches and the guys. The next day they turned in their paper work. Boom. Kill them with kindness and a little attention, and they'll work for you, not against you. Take that TwitterHater.

Tweet that, punk.

Spent Saturday at yoga (desperately needed as my stress just tripled) and then training new baby supervisors. They're all so young, and not experienced at all as we had 2 returning supervisors from last year. But they are all pretty excited and like what we're doing. Which is awesome. Really freaking awesome.

I do have one good story to share. At this training we walked around to all of our fields and talked about how and how not to supervise our programs. In between one location and the next a couple of the new sups asked me why Albany. So I gave them the short version. But one girl, who might become my little mentee, as she was my first hire officially as an Assistant Director, but she's only a freshman but came from a good recommendation. She heard my story and said "Wow, that's really cool of you. Just to get up and go for a job, that's really impressive. And awesome."

But really though...

And it was the best compliment I've gotten since I got offered the job. People say congrats, or that you're crazy to go that far away but good job, etc. And people are impressed that I decided to move again farther away from home. But this one came from a young girl who is on her own scary new adventure, her college career. On her own for the first time and in a new place with a ton of new people (literally a ton and then some). And she thought what I did was impressive and cool. She didn't think I was crazy or ask why, she just understood that it was what I needed to do, what we needed to do, and that it is impressive for the both of us.

Thanks, I needed that. I think she's going to go places, maybe within the Rec Field, maybe not, but she will succeed in whatever she does. All my supervisors have potential and I'm so excited to be that leader for them. Like so so soooo excited. In the end, I probably would do any job that had me working with students. They can drive you crazy but then you get one good talk or see someone taking your criticism and actually applying it or going above and beyond and it's all worth it. That is living the dream, my dream.

Now I'm going to eat my chinese take out and try to not look at my email until 6am tomorrow morning from my bed with my cup of coffee before I head to the office at 7.

I said try, I didn't say I would succeed.

To be continued!

P.S. Check out this awesome video of all the things we did before the start of school. And to see what my new school looks like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axCBj9DGg7g