The Perfect Staff

Mood: exhausted but content

Last movie I watched: The Perfect Man (Do you think there is a perfect man out there for me? My romantic me says yes; the realistic me questions it.)


This week could have been pretty bad. Let's be honest; it was pretty bad. I didn't get everything done that I needed to do last weekend - so I was up late Sunday night trying to get ready for the week - which of course meant that I started Monday exhausted, tired and stressed. That night, my staff and I talked about staff development - we had set aside Saturday, the 13th for staff development - and it turned out that several of them had made different plans and in the end we decided to just have breakfast together at 9 AM on a Saturday. I was NOT excited! How could they make plans when we had said at the beginning of the semester that we'd set that date aside for staff development?

The week continued; it was stressful. I didn't get all my advising notes done. I stayed up late almost every night working on different things. There was just not enough time! My apartment became more and more of a mess (it still is now) and it's made me feel more and more unsettled and annoyed and frustrated.

Then, Thursday night, my Community Council was decorating for the Homecoming Decorating Contest. They had made this beautiful banner with our mascot on it. Serioulsy, I'd never seen such a beautiful banner. It was AMAZING! They put it up around 9 PM. Later that night, I was in my apartment when my grad called me - "the banner was gone." The string had been cut and there was no trace of the banner. We were so upset. I felt awful for my Community Council. I also felt like it was an attack against us - our hall had just won this competition between all the residence halls and I've heard lots of "talk" about my building and the craziness of our staff and residents...what people don't get is that it's a very positive craziness...yes, they're loud and sometimes a bit obnoxious but they're also engaged and excited and just fun.
I decided to make a new banner for them. Obviously it wouldn't look nearly as good as the one they had made; but it'd be better than nothing. Between that banner though and having to finish up some work, I was up almost all night (2 hours of sleep to be exact). So yeah, obviously Friday was a rough day.

But then, my staff made it all better. Two of them called me that evening - very mysteriously - and insisted that I came back to the building (I was at dinner with a couple other FYAs). When I got back, they had gotten all dressed up and had flowers and it was just so cute!!!

Last night and tonight I hung out with them for a bit - just chatting and playing around and having fun. It just reminded me of what I like about my job.
The breakfast this morning was also fun. I wasn't excited about being up that early on a Saturday - but they made pancakes and we hung out and talked and it was just nice. I get lonely sometimes - with my family being so far away and now having moved away from my friends from undergrad and grad schools and not really having made that many new friends yet. But when I get to hang out with my staff, it's like I have a family again, a group of people that actually cares about me. I often feel like I don't fit in with the professional staff members - but with my RAs, I can be myself and I know they'll still love me. :-) What would I do without them???

I don't know if there's a "perfect man" out there for me, but I know there is a perfect staff - not perfect in the sense that they do everything right and are always on top of their work...we struggle at times and disagree...but they're perfect in that they make me love my job and know how to put a smile back on my face when I've had a rough day.