We've got spirit, yes, we do...

It's been a while...

I'm at the NACURH (National Association of College and University Residence Halls) Conference at Oklahoma State University right now (for you non-ResLifers: RHAs, Residence Hall Associations, send delegations to this conference). I just said goodnight to my students - who are still up playing volleyball - and went back to my room. The first thing I did, of course, was to check my work e-mail to see if I had missed anything. I just can't get rid of some of those workaholic tendencies...haha.

NACURH has been a blast so far. One of my best friends from Undergrad is here, also as an advisor with a delegation. One of my Orientation students, two students who were RAs at my undergrad at the same time I was an RA, one of my former supervisors...it's like a big reunion. :)
One of my students said earlier today, "Stop being so popular." Haha! Student Affairs is a small world. He'll have to get used to it (I'm recruiting him for our profession...it shouldn't be too hard).

I closed my building last week. Of course my students couldn't just leave on a happy note...
The night before the last day of finals, someone pulled a fire alarm at 3:30 am. I felt terribly for all those students, who had been studying like crazy all week and were just trying to get some well-deserved sleep to be rested and ready for their last finals the next day.
And then, closing day, someone left a bag with pop tabs (from beer cans) outside my door and a note that said, "Haha, you didn't catch us, bitch." One of my students also stopped by my office during the last week of classes to tell me that I was the worst hall director ever - simply because I wouldn't move him to another room (newsflash: when he asked, I didn't have any rooms open in my building; a single opened up later on and Housing gave it to him...at our institution only the Housing office can assign singles while we can move students to open spaces in doubles; so I couldn't have moved him to that single).

I guess I don't have to explain that I was very happy when we had checked out the last residents, did our last walk-through of the building and closed the doors for this year. I'm taking the summer off (I have a ten-month position; we have the opportunity to work over the summer but I chose not to do that this year) and am actually going to Austria to visit my family. It'll be good to get away from everything and come back re-energized and ready for another year.

There were also some really good times though and it was tough to say goodbye to some of my students. I will miss this year's staff terribly. One of my graduate assistants graduated (why do they have to do that???); she was amazing and right now I can't imagine running the building without her. I know it'll be okay and my new grad will be fabulous...but saying goodbye was definitely tough. My other grad still has one more year but she was moved to another building. :(
Three of my RAs are returning to my staff (yay!), three will be in different buildings, three are not returning to the RA position next year and one is studying abroad in the Fall. I'll miss them terribly; we've had a fun year and accomplished a lot. We didn't always agree on everything, but overall we came together as a staff and a team and developed close relationships with each other. At least none of them are graduating, so they'll still be around next year (and we will have reunion dinners and such...) and several of them are in NRHH, so I'll definitely get to see them at those meetings.

I also had some very special students this year. There was my "fanclub" which was actually a intramural sports team but they used my name and had t-shirts with my face on it...a little creepy, I know, but also really sweet! Then there were several of my students who really embraced our theme and the idea of being active members of their community; many of them have taken on formal leadership positions for next year with student government or as RAs. It'll be exciting to watch them to continue to grow and become influential leaders in our community.
Three students and I did a "positive art project" two weeks before closing; we had an incident on campus this year of a very offensive art project being displayed. We talked about it in my leadership course and one of the students asked me after that conversation if we could do a "positive art project" to show that many of our students actually value diversity. So we made a big banner with different color handprints, painted the words "Celebrate Diversity" on it and hung it outside our building during finals week. I just really loved that one of my students took the initiative to make this happen.

And then there's my NRHH crew!!! I love them; I really do. One of my RAs will be president next year and I know she'll just be amazing. Our NRHH delegate, who is here at NACURH with me, cracks me up - he's an outstanding student leader and we can have conversations about the most serious topics, but we can also just fool around and have a good time. I like to have a good time.
I know some of my colleagues would say that I'm "too close" with my students and that I should hang out with my students and more with other advisors. But around 10:30 pm the majority of advisors (at least the ones I know) were going to bed while my students were hanging out at the live karaoke and dancing. And if you know me, you know that I will never pass up the opportunity to dance. :)

Okay, I've finished some work-related tasks (we just received our committee chair information the day before we left for NACURH...basically if you want to chair a committee next year, you have to submit a letter by Friday saying what committee you are interested in and why; well, I'm at NACURH and then I'm going home to Austria and will leave right away to spend the weekend in Italy...so really, this interest letter just had to happen tonight...not sure how good it is...we'll see); I've listened to my favorite band, which has become a nightly ritual (Shout-out to "We The Living"...check them out at http://wetheliving.com/); I've checked my personal e-mail and decided to respond to those messages tomorrow; and I've gotten my stuff ready for tomorrow. So now it's time for bed.

For those of you who are still closing your buildings/finishing up last tasks before the end of the school year: good luck with everything. For those of you who're already done, enjoy the summer!
Shout-out to everyone who's here at NACURH right now!!!