My Cray Cray Weekend

Yay!! I totally survived the weekend. Things were going really well this week so I kind of put off my homework since I didn't have as much reading, and I wanted to reward myself. Well... this was a mistake. I realized Saturday morning that I needed to do my reading questions and write my first draft of my issue paper for my Monday class ASAP. I had to basically start getting ready for Michael's birthday party around 7pm and I already was short on time since I woke up late that day. I left to work in my office and only had 5 or 6 hours to complete these tasks.

Then there was crisis! For my issue paper, I spent all my time researching for an article that was going nowhere. I didn't know what I was talking about and hated the topic. About 4 hours into this, I trashed my paper and decided to pick a whole different issue topic. I found a suitable (but not wonderful) replacement but by that time, I had to leave my office and get ready. This meant I had accomplished maybe about 15% of what I should have done. But at that point, I just needed to get away.

Michael's birthday was totally awesome. It was the first time I actually felt like I had partied since I have been here. I came with Melissa, Kathy, and Kyla and we looked awesome since we had all gone shopping together to get our neon wear. I was excited because I rocked some glitter hair.

The whole costume theme was like heaven to me. I absolutely love color! It was awesome to be at the party with all my HESA friends. Almost everyone was there. I got to drink my signature powered and vodka cocktail. I loved interacting with both the 1st years and the 2nd years. It felt like one big cohesive cohort. I got home around 2am, took a shower and crashed on my air mattress. What a night!

Well this meant that I had to get up in the morning and write my responses to our reading questions before 1pm. And I still allowed myself 8 hours of sleep. But even with the sleep, I still had a distracting hangover. I finished the response the best I could just in the knick of time.

But it wasn't over. I still had to write the Issue Paper in enough time to allow Kyla, my revision partner to revise it that evening. I don't know how I did it, but I managed to finish a draft by 4:30 pm! So this allowed for plenty of time to relax, shower, go grocery shopping. However, I decided to bail out on the shopping idea because it's STILL RAINING here in Bloomington and raining hard. I didn't want to deal with carrying grocery sacks and an umbrella. It just seemed like a wet disaster waiting to happen.

So I watched the Frosh video required for my Student Development class. I would have watched it with the rest of my cohort who had plans to watch it together at Wilkie, but I forgot like an idiot, because I never think to look at my calendar on Sundays. I'm glad I watched it alone though. I could pause and take notes and really take in the messages of the video. I really enjoyed the video because it was basically a longitudinal study through video of college freshman living in the dorms of stanford. I knew I was going to love it because it was basically like MTV's the Real World: College!

I realized today that there is a major difference between my Monday Higher Ed class and my Wednesday Student Development class. Watching the video and doing all the many assignments we've done now have made me realize I love working for and learning about students way more than learning about institutions and administration. I like my Student Development class WAY more! I don't really have an interest in Higher Education by itself, but I am fascinated with Student Development and the Student Affairs aspect.

So now I'm about to submit my Issue Paper and the cray cray weekend will come to an end. This week I plan to be much more aware of my assignments. My free time is slowly getting eaten up by school. But I'm loving every moment of this experience.

Smiling as always,
Cameron

My Umbrella

But the sun is shining today! Things have been going so well!!

First of all I feel so much better because I found out that I get a $8500 subsidized loan. This means that I can survive comfortably for the next two years here at IU. I don't have to be poor!! Most of all, this is important because it means I'm taking care of myself. For once I don't need to rely on dad to bail me out. I know it's a loan, and loans are never good. I know I have to pay it off, but I'm so happy that there is no interest until 6 months after I graduate. I can totally handle that. It just feels great because the financial stress was the only thing in the way of having a truly amazing experience here.

I have been loving my job. I just got done with our first Executive Meeting. I loved that I got to look professional today!

Yeah... real professional :-)

Anyway, it went well and apparently we had really good attendance and great issues to bring to the table. I felt so validated for my work, which is hard to find in most employment. This meeting was the catalyst to the year. Now I know so much more and have so many things I can work on.

A lot has been going on here on campus. I've been to quite a few resource fairs and have had my fair share of free pizza. It's also been raining so much!! Sometimes it trickles, sometimes it pours! I'm getting the hang of the buses. I even visited the library to check out a book for the first time. It's a really good school. I'm finding my way.

We had another HESA cohort dinner at Lenny's and it was nice to actually say. Hey I can afford this! It rained super hard on this day!! I had the craziest create your own Stromboli. It was delicious :-)

School has been slowly getting more busy. I have many projects coming pretty fast. I have several group meetings, lots of reading (as always), a couple papers, lots of research, and a video to watch. I think we are all feeling it. Danielle doesn't play games. She works us. Haha... But I really like all our assignments.  We have to create our own theory soon. While I don't exactly know what I'll do. I'm excited and scared at the same time. Excited because I really have so many choices and interests. Scared because it's going to require a ton of research. And that word just intimidates me. With all this said, I still feel like I'm doing well. I may have a lot on the plate, but I'm actually not half bad at this stuff. I don't feel like it's out of my league.

So today I'm shopping for the costume of Michael's birthday party tomorrow with a group of HESA friends. I want to find some small neon clothes. I also want glitter! These are my goals for the party.

So while, it may be raining pretty hard here in Bloomington. I have an attitude that is so positive that I have my own little umbrella. In a metaphoric way.

Smiling as always,
Cameron

Self Sustaining

So far things are going great. I'm really starting to get the hang of graduate school and balancing my life. I'm a month into my job and a couple weeks into classes and everything has been working really well.

Over the weekend, I made a trip to Indianapolis for the first time since I arrived here and it felt great being able to connect with some of my classmates from the IUPUI campus. We went to the Chinese Festival and then to Oktoberfest.

It was nice to spend some time with Mara and the 2 Samanthas and also talk from the car ride. I really enjoyed getting to see Nathan, Elizabeth, Melissa, Devon, and Teddi. They are way fun and I hope that the distance from us and Indy doesn't keep us from hanging out more frequently.

I think the best thing that I'm learning from being here is how to do things on my own and make my own decisions. So far I've been fairly organized (not to mention Microsoft Outlook has changed my life). Classes are going well because I'm slowly tackling the reading and making connections to what I'm learning.

I have such a flexible and comfortable schedule because I basically am in charge of it. It's so nice not to be hourly anymore. I can actually take pride in my work because I have a bigger picture and invested interest in what I do. I probably work well over 20 hours a week, but it's comfortable because I choose the hours I work. I don't have to get up really early. I start work at 10am most every weekday. In return I am done around 6 or 7 depending on what I need to do. If I have class or a meeting or personal business to take care of. I can just take care of it on my time. This works SO MUCH BETTER.

I am in my office all the time though. When I finish up my tasks, I still don't leave my office. I stay and work on stuff for school or just relax at my desk and listen to music. It's so nice to have my own space. People think I work all the time because I'm always at my office, but I just like being there. Sometimes a little more than being at my apartment. And I've personalized my space a little more now. I still want to put up some more photos, but for now it's looking a little more like home.

I have my degree framed and my Glee poster up now. I love it! It's my home away from home. LOVE MY OFFICE!!!

Today was a busy and productive Monday. Class was pretty nice. We talked the whole time about the History of Higher Education. I like my two HESA classes because we do a lot of discussions and presentations. We also have great reflexive assignments. The reading is hard to keep up with, but I'm learning to skim better.

Today was the first single COMU event of the year. It was our Call Out and I didn't know what to expect or how many people would come, but it went really well. The real amazing part was how I realized I was not dressed as nice as I could be after class got out at 3:45 so I had 30 minutes to make a mad dash back to my apartment, change, bike down to my office, print off the sign up sheets, bike over to the Call Out just in time to set up at 4:30. It was awesome! I got to be the facilitator and introduce the committees and welcome everyone. We ended up having about 20 people show up which was the usual from last years numbers so I felt good about that. We had refreshments and people got to mingle. I met some great people who I'll be working with and I got to connect with some students.

Throughout my whole assistantship experience Darrell and Doug have been so wonderful. They make me feel so good about my work and it makes me want to be a better worker. I seriously can't imagine having it better in any other assistantship. My job is perfect! Since we are all new officials of COMU we work together to think of ways to grow the organization from our fresh new perspective. I feel so invested and validated in what I do. I never thought that I would catch on so well to a job like this.

Well I'm off to bed. I always end up writing these pretty late after I finish up my work and cook something to eat and watch a couple episodes of The Hills (which is now available on Netflix) I don't know why I like this show. Haha!

Smiling as always,
Cameron

Work. Study. Play.

Week 2 of school is officially over. I made it so far. Turned in my first paper, assignment, and other various online tasks for class. Now I have a zillion pages of reading. AH!! I made this video to just kind of reflect on the week. I really like the video route. I may make this blog a video blog eventually, but I'm not sure yet.

It's been a month since I've been here! Wow... it's awesome to think that I've made it this far and I'm really getting used to some things.

Here is the finished portrait of my undergraduate journey that I was talking about in the video. This is one of the coolest assignments I've ever done and I enjoyed doing it.

There was the involvement fair I tabled at. It was HUGE!!

I got to have some play time with friends too.
I had dinner with the first year cohort at the Turkish restaurant. Yum!!

We're HESA students. We're allowed to be OVERLY HAPPY ABOUT EVERYTHING.

So it's been a BUSY but awesome week.

Smiling as always,
Cameron