End of the Semester

Well...it seems as if I've been neglecting doing regular updates. I know nobody else really reads this except for myself and some of the other Hixson Scholars, but I thought it would be good to revisit this and reflect on the past half-year, so if I look back on this in the future I'll remember it better. This past half-year, scratch that, this past year, has definitely been the best year of my life!
I'll start out with concluding from this summer. As I believe I've posted before, Orientation was an absolutely wonderful time, and then the month of July was kind of relaxed with helping with campus visits, doing Experience Iowa State days, and planning for Destination Iowa State. The month of July was relatively uneventful, the highlight of which was being involved with one of my best friend's proposing to his girlfriend, and her accepting of course. Yay! So this next summer I'm going to be one of the groomsmen and get to be really involved with a wedding for the first time ever. I'm pretty excited!
Now, the month of August is when things got REALLY INTENSE. All the Cyclone Aides moved out of Frederickson Court, and those of us who were also serving as Community Advisors were soon about to start training for that. Training started out pretty normal...on the second day of training we all went to Camp Hantesa just outside of Ames to do some team-building activities and some diversity education...ended up coming back covered in mud, sweat, and blood...obviously a great day of training! Either that night, or the night after that was when we started to have an intense rain fall. We as a CA staff all decided to go out and play in the rain puddles for a bit, and when we realized it was flooding, instead of running off to safety and avoiding dangerous situations...we decided we were going to go play in the flood. So we set off through the flood waters, seeing metal grates covering tunnels leading underground overturned, streets flooded, and City of Ames workers putting up barriers and sandbagging. We offered to help but we were told they had all the help they needed, and they recommended we leave, so we did, but not before jumping in the Fountain of the Four Seasons, just because we could (which we later found out was illegal....oops!). The next day training was going on as usual, despite the floods. Partway through the day, things turned for the worse. Flood water contaminated the public water in Ames, putting the city in a boil order, and we found out Hilton Coliseum was flooded and would not be functioning in time for Destination Iowa State the next week. Let me put this in perspective...imagine spending an entire year planning one of the biggest mass-gatherings of the year for a pretty large university, an event involving 4500+ new students, Team Leaders, Cyclone Aides, and staff members....only to find out the week before that ALL of Thursdays activities have to be changed due to flooding. Obviously the New Student Programs staff was very frustrated and LOTS of things had to be changed last minute. We finished training, began the process of checking new students in, and then it was time to take time away from being a Community Advisor to my other CA position...Cyclone Aide to help with Destination Iowa State. Luckily things did end up working out for the most part....the Picnic and Kickoff were moved to Central Campus, and things slightly altered, but it still ended up being a really great event. Luckily the rest of Destination Iowa State went off without any flaws, and sitting in front row in Stephens Auditorium for Comedian Jeff Dye, and all the Cyclone Aides dancing to "I Like It" in front of an auditorium with thousands of people in it was definitely a very memorable experience.
With new student Move-In over with and Destination Iowa State coming to a close with the Comedian and Target Sweep, it was now time for classes to start. Admittedly, my classes this semester weren't exactly the best, although I did have some good ones. I enjoyed my Youth and Crime class and Social Cognition...everything else I could honestly have cared less for, but they were all basically graduation requirements...I am definitely looking forward to next semester though...Abnormal Psychology, Sensation and Perception, Motivation, Psychology and the Legal System, and unfortunately a Statistics class..but with the exception of that, I'm looking forward to everything else, and all of the professors I have are great according to reviews, so it should definitely be a good semester and hopefully I can make the Dean's List again.
Being a Community Advisor this past semester has definitely been an eye-opening experience. I have the best Hall Director ever...I got to be involved with the Hall Director interview process last semester, and was ecstatic when I found out that I'd have the opportunity to work with the person who was my favorite candidate. My residents are great as well...a lot of them remembered me from Orientation, and many of them are really open with me, and I love having the opportunity to have a positive impact on their lives and help guide them in the right direction. They made it to the Intramural Flag Football championships even, but unfortunately ended up playing a team that had been playing together for 3 years, and should have been in A-class instead of B-class...oh well, they're still winners in my eyes (despite how cheesy that sounds.) Some of them even like to come back drunk and hug me and/or try to pick me up...only two of whom have been successful with that though.
My least favorite part of being a CA, however, is my horrible custodian. If there is a noodle in the sink or drinking fountain he will take a picture of it, then walk around all day trying to find me so he can show me a picture of it. He sorts through the trash to see if anything is in there that shouldn't be in there...and he complains about EVERYTHING. I've given up on saying "Good morning" to him since he'll just give me ten reasons why it's not, and normally throw in some uneducated sexist or racist joke. One day at the desk he decided to tell me the story of how he lost his virginity and his experience with condoms...definitely NOT a story I needed to hear from a 50 year old man. Luckily I'm not around too much during the day so I don't have to deal with him too much...unfortunately, my residents do and I absolutely hate the way he treats them...oh well...in the end he's the most miserable person, so it all works out in the end!
I've also had quite a few interesting incidents this semester as a CA, a lot of which I can't go into too much detail on. One day my residents decided to barricade my door with recycling bins, and then later on made a shrine to me with them. I got to call the cops when my HD and I found potential drug paraphernelia and fireworks in a room while doing a room check, and there was one day where I may or may not have had to confront a prostitute...we can't say for sure whether or not she was, but all signs point to it.
This past semester I was also obviously a Peer Mentor for the Hixson program, the reason we had to start online blogging. It was great finally getting to apply what we had learned in class to working with our new students. I think Amber and I were lucky enough to have a really great class to teach this semester...our trip with them to the Omaha Zoo was a great time and they did a great parody of Twilight for their class project. I think Amber and I had an interesting dynamic...she did all of the organization and planning, and I for the most part did Icebreakers and Games...if I were to be a Peer Mentor again, I would try to so a bit more planning, since all of my practice with Lesson Plans this past Spring semester I didn't really get to utilize.
Dance Marathon is coming up in about a month...this past semester, my partner Katie and I had been going to several different sites recruiting people and helping with fundraising, and luckily we've gotten a fairly big group this year! I also enjoyed going to Iowa City one weekend to choreograph our 2011 Morale Dance and getting a tour of the Children's Hospital, as well as bonding with the rest of the Recruitment and Morale committee. I look forward to all of the costumes and dancing on January 22, 2011! It should be another unforgettable day!
Another great thing that happened this semester was I got the opportunity to go to the MACURH conference again, this time at Missouri State University. I did a program titled "IceBreakers and You: Breaking the Ice Without Scaring People...Too Much", about working with different personality types, specifically introverts/extroverts. It ended up being a great program because we had a lot of discussion and I even had a professional Hall Director and Student Counselor come up afterwards and compliment me on it, and I got overall great reviews on it. The best part about MACURH, however, was the rest of our delegation. Our delegation team bonded a lot better than the one from last year, and we've gone out to eat several times since the conference, and I've gotten closer to a lot of them than I have with people I've known for years. 6+ hour van rides can do that for you. One of my favorite parts of the conference trip was Ashley and Julia kidnapping Heidi, our stuffed dog mascot, and forcing me to go to their hotel room and getting on my hands and knees while they took compromising pictures so I could get her back. Another great memory was all going to Fuji Steakhouse together and the hillarity tat ensued there. I also found out on the trip that one of my residents, whom also went with us, thought of me as more of a brother figure than a CA. That really did touch me and I MAY have almost gotten teary-eyed...almost.
Now, I think it's time to conclude as this is getting very long, and it did manage to entertain me for a bit at least. Like I said, this past semester was a very memorable one. I'e had all new experiences, met a ton of amazing people, had the opportunity to impact the lives of hundreds of people through Orientation, Destination Iowa State, being a CA, and being a Hixson Peer Mentor, and have lots of things to look forward to in the future. One of my best friends will be student-teaching this next semester, and after that he'll be going to grad school here in Higher Education, which is what I plan on doing. My work and experiences working with prospective and new students this past year has pushed me in that direction, and now I'm sure it's what I want to do for the rest of my life...so I'm already in the process of preparing to apply for graduate school, even though I still have a year...it's something I want to get done early. Next month will be more CA training, my final Orientation/Destination Iowa State, and Dance Marathon 2011! Then in February will be the No Frills Conference, and that will be fun working with the RBD and hosting the other universities in the region for regional business. Sadly, after February my schedule dies down significantly, so I won't be quite as busy next semester as I was this past semester...which will give me more time to focus on being a CA I guess, and maybe time to develop my grad school application more. Now I think it's really time to end this....bye!