My favorite place on Earth.
I've been back up at Potsdam for a week now. I was up early for the annual Student Leadership Conference, and classes start back up tomorrow.
I was nervous about coming back for the conference, but then I found out that some people who I already knew (and was friends with) would be up here for that as well. I moved into my dorm room, which is a triple, last Sunday (the 18th), and then the first conference event was on Monday the 19th. The events on Monday were mostly getting-to-know-each-other sort of activities, but they were a lot of fun. We were broken into five different groups. Even though I knew one of the people in my group, I didn't stick with him the entire time. I was talking to, and getting to know, people who I didn't know and who I had seen around campus, but had never talked to before. It was really good, and really fun.
Tuesday started off with all of us together, listening to a presentation on leadership styles - the Mandala Inventory, in particular. I learned that, according to that survey, my "Buddha Family" is Karma, with a very close Padma. Leaders with in the Karma family tend to be efficient (I guess that's true for me), effective (true), practical (not sure how true?), and timely (not true at all; I procrastinate far too much), but they can also be restless (true), power-hungry (not true), competitive (not true at all; I'm not a competitive person), manipulative (not gonna lie, I can be), controlling (sort-of true), and dominating (not true). People in the Karma family also tend to fear failure (VERY true!) and can get jealous (also true). Leaders in the Padma family are engaging (I can be, I think), magnetizing (I don't know), and charming (possibly true?). People in the Padma family can be overly emotional (sometimes true) and often seek confirmation that what they've done is right (SO true!). All of my Buddha families were really close. I had a score of 42 in Karma, 41 in Padma, 40 in both Ratna and Buddha, and 39 in Vajra. I think that might mean I can be rather balanced as a leader, but I'm honestly not sure. The people who did the presentation didn't say what it meant if all of them were super-close.
After that, we had to sit through a talk done by our keynote speaker, Kelly Ellis-Foster. I'll be completely honest in saying that I didn't pay too much attention and was rather bored. Oops. Then lunch, and then a short little presentation about what the SGA (Student Government Association) can do for your club.
In the afternoon, we got to select which sessions we wanted to go to. I went to one about going beyond your club's title, one about designing creative programs/events, and one on using media to your club's advantage. The first two were really interesting and fun, but the third was just.. eh. I really liked the Going Beyond the Title one a lot because it was fun as well as informative. The presenter talked about how a lot of the time, people look at a club's title and think they wouldn't belong there. He talked about how, if you go to someone's club meeting, that person might return the favor and check out your club. If members from your club go to/support another club's event, members from that club might return the favor and go to/support one of your clubs events. Looking at it now, it seems like common sense, but it's something that I really hadn't thought about before.
Another mandatory group session, then Spirit Dinner, where the students attending the conference got to have dinner with the faculty and staff who made the conference possible.
Wednesday was another day of selecting your own sessions to go to, and then a three hour long "dynamic recruitment session," which was fun at first, but after about two hours, I was bored of it and wanted to be doing something else. The fact that it was really nice outside didn't help any, as I just wanted to get outside instead of being stuck in a room with a hundred other people.
Thursday I was part of the Welcome Team, helping freshmen move into their dorms.
(ECSO is the club I was at the leadership conference, and the club I was representing while helping freshmen move into their dorm rooms).
It was POURING rain during most of my shift, but I made the most of it. Some of us stuck together in little groups/teams, and during the heaviest part of the rain, no one wanted our help (because they were all sitting in the cars, waiting out the rain), so we made the best of our situation. I was with two of my friends who I've known since my first year here and one girl I'd just met the day before. We ran around playing in the rain, jumping in puddles trying to splash each other. We were SOAKED and probably looked like drowned rats, but it was just so much fun and a really great day. I was annoyed that people mostly just took one look at me (and how small I am) and didn't want me to help them. I felt really good about being able to help them though, so that was nice.
Friday was a day of nothing! A very relaxing, quite nice, day of nothing. There were fireworks that night, and then I played Cards Against Humanity (think: Apples to Apples, but a sick/twisted/adult/inappropriate/offensive version) with friends until 1 in the morning.
Roommate got here yesterday (Saturday). Anna isn't my roommate again this year because she transferred to a different school. This year, I'm rooming with my friend Devorah. We're in a triple with just the two of us because we originally had three people, but our third person decided not to come back this semester.
And then today was the Welcome Weekend Carnival! I had to help with set-up, which started at 10 in them morning, but I forgot what time it started at so I showed up at 9:30. The carnival started at 1, and I helped out at ECSO's booth from 1 until 2:45, then went and stuffed a super-cute little stuffed animal (a panda who I decided to name Jasper. Because I like that name. Not because of Twilight.), and then helped out at LGBTAA's booth from 3 until the carnival ended at 5. We had a floor meeting at 7:30 (although it was more like 7:45 because there was a fire drill at 7:30), and then I hung out with Devorah and some of the people from our floor. This floor is already different from my floor last year because of one major little thing: people talk (and want to talk) to each other and want to get to know each other. I could see some of us on this floor being really close, like the people on my floor my first year here, which would be really awesome.
I've been so super busy this past week, but it has been so much fun. This week has honestly been one of the best weeks of my life. And classes start up tomorrow.
I was nervous about coming back for the conference, but then I found out that some people who I already knew (and was friends with) would be up here for that as well. I moved into my dorm room, which is a triple, last Sunday (the 18th), and then the first conference event was on Monday the 19th. The events on Monday were mostly getting-to-know-each-other sort of activities, but they were a lot of fun. We were broken into five different groups. Even though I knew one of the people in my group, I didn't stick with him the entire time. I was talking to, and getting to know, people who I didn't know and who I had seen around campus, but had never talked to before. It was really good, and really fun.
Tuesday started off with all of us together, listening to a presentation on leadership styles - the Mandala Inventory, in particular. I learned that, according to that survey, my "Buddha Family" is Karma, with a very close Padma. Leaders with in the Karma family tend to be efficient (I guess that's true for me), effective (true), practical (not sure how true?), and timely (not true at all; I procrastinate far too much), but they can also be restless (true), power-hungry (not true), competitive (not true at all; I'm not a competitive person), manipulative (not gonna lie, I can be), controlling (sort-of true), and dominating (not true). People in the Karma family also tend to fear failure (VERY true!) and can get jealous (also true). Leaders in the Padma family are engaging (I can be, I think), magnetizing (I don't know), and charming (possibly true?). People in the Padma family can be overly emotional (sometimes true) and often seek confirmation that what they've done is right (SO true!). All of my Buddha families were really close. I had a score of 42 in Karma, 41 in Padma, 40 in both Ratna and Buddha, and 39 in Vajra. I think that might mean I can be rather balanced as a leader, but I'm honestly not sure. The people who did the presentation didn't say what it meant if all of them were super-close.
After that, we had to sit through a talk done by our keynote speaker, Kelly Ellis-Foster. I'll be completely honest in saying that I didn't pay too much attention and was rather bored. Oops. Then lunch, and then a short little presentation about what the SGA (Student Government Association) can do for your club.
In the afternoon, we got to select which sessions we wanted to go to. I went to one about going beyond your club's title, one about designing creative programs/events, and one on using media to your club's advantage. The first two were really interesting and fun, but the third was just.. eh. I really liked the Going Beyond the Title one a lot because it was fun as well as informative. The presenter talked about how a lot of the time, people look at a club's title and think they wouldn't belong there. He talked about how, if you go to someone's club meeting, that person might return the favor and check out your club. If members from your club go to/support another club's event, members from that club might return the favor and go to/support one of your clubs events. Looking at it now, it seems like common sense, but it's something that I really hadn't thought about before.
Another mandatory group session, then Spirit Dinner, where the students attending the conference got to have dinner with the faculty and staff who made the conference possible.
Wednesday was another day of selecting your own sessions to go to, and then a three hour long "dynamic recruitment session," which was fun at first, but after about two hours, I was bored of it and wanted to be doing something else. The fact that it was really nice outside didn't help any, as I just wanted to get outside instead of being stuck in a room with a hundred other people.
Thursday I was part of the Welcome Team, helping freshmen move into their dorms.
It was POURING rain during most of my shift, but I made the most of it. Some of us stuck together in little groups/teams, and during the heaviest part of the rain, no one wanted our help (because they were all sitting in the cars, waiting out the rain), so we made the best of our situation. I was with two of my friends who I've known since my first year here and one girl I'd just met the day before. We ran around playing in the rain, jumping in puddles trying to splash each other. We were SOAKED and probably looked like drowned rats, but it was just so much fun and a really great day. I was annoyed that people mostly just took one look at me (and how small I am) and didn't want me to help them. I felt really good about being able to help them though, so that was nice.
Friday was a day of nothing! A very relaxing, quite nice, day of nothing. There were fireworks that night, and then I played Cards Against Humanity (think: Apples to Apples, but a sick/twisted/adult/inappropriate/offensive version) with friends until 1 in the morning.
Roommate got here yesterday (Saturday). Anna isn't my roommate again this year because she transferred to a different school. This year, I'm rooming with my friend Devorah. We're in a triple with just the two of us because we originally had three people, but our third person decided not to come back this semester.
And then today was the Welcome Weekend Carnival! I had to help with set-up, which started at 10 in them morning, but I forgot what time it started at so I showed up at 9:30. The carnival started at 1, and I helped out at ECSO's booth from 1 until 2:45, then went and stuffed a super-cute little stuffed animal (a panda who I decided to name Jasper. Because I like that name. Not because of Twilight.), and then helped out at LGBTAA's booth from 3 until the carnival ended at 5. We had a floor meeting at 7:30 (although it was more like 7:45 because there was a fire drill at 7:30), and then I hung out with Devorah and some of the people from our floor. This floor is already different from my floor last year because of one major little thing: people talk (and want to talk) to each other and want to get to know each other. I could see some of us on this floor being really close, like the people on my floor my first year here, which would be really awesome.
I've been so super busy this past week, but it has been so much fun. This week has honestly been one of the best weeks of my life. And classes start up tomorrow.
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