Spring Break is over and the countdown toward the end of the year and the closing of the residence hall has started. As much as I love my job and my students, I have to admit, I love closing. By that time of the year, I'm just ready to finish it - ready to get everyone out of the building - ready to have a little bit more of a social life again - ready to be done, take a break and then get a fresh start with a new staff and a new group of residents.
But before I start dreaming about the future, let's take a look back to the past week - Spring Break. In September, I had this "awesome" idea to go on a service trip with my residents. It sounded great! What better way to put our theme - "CHANGE - Emerging Community Leaders" - into action and help our residents achieve some of those learning outcomes we have.
It all sounded great until maybe two weeks prior to the trip. I didn't really have the time earlier to get things ready for the trip, so suddenly I was hit with all these last minute preparations. From communicating with the Habitat for Humanity (HFH) host affilitate and figuring details about our accommodations and other arrangements with them to preparing some team builders and service learning activities to buying supplies for the group (work gloves, coolers, etc.) and myself (e.g. steel toed shoes).
I was running around like crazy and while I didn't want to admit it to myself, I really wished that I had never come up with the idea for this trip and would just get to spend spring break staying at home, relaxing, maybe reading a book or watching TV, or even using a day or two to catch up and maybe even get ahead with work...sleeping in late...oh, it all sounded so tempting!
Looking back: the trip was worth it. I had a good time. The students gained a lot from it. The HFH affiliate really appreciated our help. And we had tons of fun - at our days off when we went to Philadelphia and Washington D.C. as well as at the construction site when we learned how to "flush" "4-by-2's" and build a wall.
Part of me still wishes that I would have had that week off. This week back - it's only been three days but it feels like a lifetime again - has been superbusy. With ACPA coming up in addition to all the building-related and committee-related tasks I need to accomplish, I've been putting in lots of late hours.
Some of my RAs and I talked about whether or not we'd want to do a trip like that again. And the RAs strongly felt like we should do it again next year. I agree with them - but I'm also hesitant to give up my spring break again. It's tough. I want to do this for my students - as well as for myself - but is all the stress really worth it?
I know it is - at least I believe it is - but the self-ish part of me wishes I could just sleep in for a couple days. :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment