Learning to Fly - Post 24
Quote of the Day:
"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."
- Dr. Seuss
Easier said than done. I'm one of these people, who hate saying goodbye. You'd think I'm good at it. I've left my hometown, my home country, my family, all my friends, everything I knew...twice actually...once in high school for a year (I was an exchange student), then again for college and that time for good (even though I wasn't sure at that time whether it was for good or not, but I kinda expected it to be...). It wasn't that hard back then. I was excited for the new things to come. To be honest, I couldn't wait to get out of there and start my own adventures. Start new, in a new place, with new people, doing things I'd never even heard about before.
Now, at times, I feel like my life is string of goodbyes, some harder than others but none of them really fun. That's when I have to remind myself that my life is also filled with hellos. Especially in our profession...working with a new staff each year (new professional staff members, supervisors, as well as new student staff members), meeting new residents and student leaders, and and and. But somehow it's easy to forget that and get stuck on the fact that we constantly have to say goodbye.
I just found out yesterday that one of my favorite coordinators is leaving our department. There's four coordinators in our department. Two of them are clearly my favorites (well, I also worked with them more than the others, so maybe I'm not being fair, but what's fair about having favorites anyway)...and those two, my two favorites, are leaving. As my RHA members would say, "Uh uh, not cool" (quote from the movie "Bring It On). Yeah, there'll be two new coordinators (hopefully...you never know how those searches go) but maybe they'll be fabulous, but you never know. And right now I just want to be a stubborn little kid that's whining and complaining and doesn't listen to logic and reasoning.
You know, it also makes me wonder. If these two coordinators, who obviously did a fabulous (fabulous is my new word by the way...it used to be amazing, then wonderful, now it's fabulous...i've noticed myself using it like ten times a day)...so anyway, if those two, who did a fabulous job (or otherwise they wouldn't be my favorites, of course), are leaving after just one year at this institution, shouldn't we ask ourselves "WHAT ARE WE DOING?" And maybe central staff is asking themselves that, but I don't know that for a fact, so of course I'm wondering.
I mean, there's two fabulous coordinators leaving after one year, there's three professional staff members leaving after just one year...yeah, we have a big department and there's always a lot of turnover, but we all know that you usually stick out a new job for at least two years...at least that's what I was told to do.
You know, sometimes I really wonder what central staff thinks. Here's another thing about working at a big institution: there's a lot of things you just don't know. I'm sure there's conversations going on (or at least I hope so), but it being such a big department, we, at the bottom of the totem pole (actually that'd be the grads...or the student staff members...but at least in terms of full-time professionals, we're down there), we just don't know about a lot of these things and then it's easy to think these things aren't happening. And it's not like I would need to know all the details of these conversations (I admit, I'm a naturally curious person, so I would want to know...but I'm realistic enough to realize that I don't need to know), it'd just be nice to know that there are conversations happening. Is that too much to ask for?
Okay, I'm done with my little vent session for the day. Some other time, I'll spend some quality time reflecting on what I've learned this first year and where I'm going from here. I just had my evaluation meeting with my fabulous coordinator (haha...i'm cracking myself up by saying "fabulous" every two seconds...I just said it to one of my office workers...I'm working with Orientation this summer...anyway, you all probably think I've gone insane...well, maybe I have)...but yeah, more about that some other time; once I've gotten over the large number of goodbye's I had to say in the past few days and will still have to say in the next couple weeks...Did I mention that I hate goodbyes?
"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."
- Dr. Seuss
Easier said than done. I'm one of these people, who hate saying goodbye. You'd think I'm good at it. I've left my hometown, my home country, my family, all my friends, everything I knew...twice actually...once in high school for a year (I was an exchange student), then again for college and that time for good (even though I wasn't sure at that time whether it was for good or not, but I kinda expected it to be...). It wasn't that hard back then. I was excited for the new things to come. To be honest, I couldn't wait to get out of there and start my own adventures. Start new, in a new place, with new people, doing things I'd never even heard about before.
Now, at times, I feel like my life is string of goodbyes, some harder than others but none of them really fun. That's when I have to remind myself that my life is also filled with hellos. Especially in our profession...working with a new staff each year (new professional staff members, supervisors, as well as new student staff members), meeting new residents and student leaders, and and and. But somehow it's easy to forget that and get stuck on the fact that we constantly have to say goodbye.
I just found out yesterday that one of my favorite coordinators is leaving our department. There's four coordinators in our department. Two of them are clearly my favorites (well, I also worked with them more than the others, so maybe I'm not being fair, but what's fair about having favorites anyway)...and those two, my two favorites, are leaving. As my RHA members would say, "Uh uh, not cool" (quote from the movie "Bring It On). Yeah, there'll be two new coordinators (hopefully...you never know how those searches go) but maybe they'll be fabulous, but you never know. And right now I just want to be a stubborn little kid that's whining and complaining and doesn't listen to logic and reasoning.
You know, it also makes me wonder. If these two coordinators, who obviously did a fabulous (fabulous is my new word by the way...it used to be amazing, then wonderful, now it's fabulous...i've noticed myself using it like ten times a day)...so anyway, if those two, who did a fabulous job (or otherwise they wouldn't be my favorites, of course), are leaving after just one year at this institution, shouldn't we ask ourselves "WHAT ARE WE DOING?" And maybe central staff is asking themselves that, but I don't know that for a fact, so of course I'm wondering.
I mean, there's two fabulous coordinators leaving after one year, there's three professional staff members leaving after just one year...yeah, we have a big department and there's always a lot of turnover, but we all know that you usually stick out a new job for at least two years...at least that's what I was told to do.
You know, sometimes I really wonder what central staff thinks. Here's another thing about working at a big institution: there's a lot of things you just don't know. I'm sure there's conversations going on (or at least I hope so), but it being such a big department, we, at the bottom of the totem pole (actually that'd be the grads...or the student staff members...but at least in terms of full-time professionals, we're down there), we just don't know about a lot of these things and then it's easy to think these things aren't happening. And it's not like I would need to know all the details of these conversations (I admit, I'm a naturally curious person, so I would want to know...but I'm realistic enough to realize that I don't need to know), it'd just be nice to know that there are conversations happening. Is that too much to ask for?
Okay, I'm done with my little vent session for the day. Some other time, I'll spend some quality time reflecting on what I've learned this first year and where I'm going from here. I just had my evaluation meeting with my fabulous coordinator (haha...i'm cracking myself up by saying "fabulous" every two seconds...I just said it to one of my office workers...I'm working with Orientation this summer...anyway, you all probably think I've gone insane...well, maybe I have)...but yeah, more about that some other time; once I've gotten over the large number of goodbye's I had to say in the past few days and will still have to say in the next couple weeks...Did I mention that I hate goodbyes?
posted by StudentAffairs.com at
10:41 AM
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