Archive for 'Emily'
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
I am now a HeadStart aide in College Station ISD and the experience is already teaching me a thing or two. For one, I have a whole new appreciation for friends who have only known the working college experience. For another, I’m realizing that 40 hours + The Edge magazine+ Business Student Council+class=not much free time. Sitting here, coincidentally, in as much A&M gear as I own, I’m STILL figuring out what it is to be EmilyinCollege. (more…)
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Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
I am officially busy. And tired. And not thinking in the most poetic phrases even though 80% of my resume revolves around writing/communication skills.
Forgive me.
Between selling advertising space in The Edge magazine at the business career fair today, studying for 3 exams in the coming week, and preparing to start my first full time job within the next few days, life is c-r-a-z-y. (more…)
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Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
I witnessed a man die today, and I will never be the same.
The wreck happened at the corner of Wellborn and Joe Routt, and when I saw a man laying lifeless on the concrete of an intersection, my stomach turned before the tears began to fall. I do not know his name or what he was doing, only that he was alive on a motorcycle, then dead on the pavement before my eyes.
(more…)
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Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
Having always been the sort to enjoy cooking or dancing on rainy days, beautiful notes in songs or particularly poetic phrases in books or conversation, I’ve been accused of being a Romantic more than once. For me, it has never been about creating an impossible fantasy world or choosing naivete over reality. I just choose to be grateful–to notice things that bring me joy–to create a hospitable mental environment for myself to retreat into after a long day.
In any case, none of those things, although seemingly related, translate into being a natural ‘girlfriend’. Notoriously independent among friends and family, more than one eyebrow raised when a new profile picture on facebook featured a boyfriend. Who is he? Where did you come up with him? You’re graduating soon–is he The One? Some questions were easy, others (obviously) terrifiying after a couple of months. ”Whoa!”, I thought, “What am I doing here?!”
Dating is part of the college experience that some will warn against, calling it a distraction or finding a host of reasons to say it’s “not best”. What I’m learning, though, is that committing to spending time with someone interesting (and in a lot of ways different from me) broadens my interests and teaches me things about sports, the guiltless consumption of huge amounts of Whataburger, and even the way someone else’s family functions. It’s fascinating and, after 2 years of focusing on career preparation, exactly the change of pace I needed to keep my learning curve the steepest.
If making the grade, developing leadership, interning and traveling overseas seem like the “no-brainers” to making the most of college, there’s something sweet about learning to enjoy relationships of all kinds, too. Don’t miss out on deep connections with people–notice them, pursue them, be grateful for their unique intricacies…enjoy the opportunity to know them! We–not the latest discoveries or trends in management or policies in accounting–are the real basis of business, and if you miss out on people now, no outdated textbook can bring you back up to date.
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Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
Having been raised on fried chicken, Dr. Pepper and as much butter as can be mixed into any dish possible, health and fitness are far from my forte. This summer, however, I have taken to doing repetitions with hand weights. A couple of 8 pounders were laying around the house, and the first night I stood in front of the mirror doing curls, I felt A) ridiculous B) strained and C) unsure whether what I was doing would even make a difference in my overall fitness. Nonetheless, I concentrated on keeping my arms from feeling like spaghetti, and now, a couple of weeks later, lifting the dumbbells doesn’t make me feel foolish and isn’t the least bit difficult.
Changing personal habits (like execerise regimes) or patterns of thinking (like passiveness or laziness) work the same way, I’ve learned. The following is a quote from one of my communication textbooks which–AAH!–I actually read. I like it.
“There is not some kind of monolithic, singular, fixed environment that exists detached from and external to…people. Instead…people are very much a part of their own environments. They act, and in doing so create the materials that become the constraints and opportunities they face. There is not some “they” out there who puts these environments in front of passive people. Instead, the “they” is people who are more active.” -Weick, 1995
Circumstances exist because someone–a person, full of both endless power and the trappings of mortality–chose or neglected to choose for life to be the way it is. The grocery store is laid out the way it is because someone in a board room suggested it, and everyone else present either intellectually agreed, disagreed but couldn’t bring others to side with him, or didn’t care enough one way or another to say anything at all. How much more true of laws, policies,
We all make a difference, whether we 1) want to 2) intend to or 3) feel equipped to do so. What impact are you having? Can you feel proud of the decisions you’ve not only piloted, but the ones you’ve allowed by agreeing? Do you like the legacy you’re leaving?
Speaking up can feel a bit like lifting dumb bells for the first time. For some, it’s unnatural, unpleasant and even outright risky. But, learning to form an opinion, communicate it, and negotiate its finer points until they’re accepted are all pieces of shaping a world that’s more fit to live in for more people.
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Monday, August 3rd, 2009
One thing I really enjoy is going to leadership conferences, retreats, workshops, camps–whatever. I love the feel of spending 2 hours learning about something, shifting into a different gear and getting to hear, from someone else’s perspective, about another related subject. I like the energy, the learning, and the new relationships that run deep because of the nature of subjects discussed, yet which aren’t bogged down by the complexity of everyday life. It’s a bit like camp: the relationships are real, but everything feels as if it’s happened in a time warp. What are the chances of the same group being together in the same place at the same time for the same reasons again? None. It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I like that. (more…)
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Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
One of the most valuable things I’ve learned from a class at A&M came in INFO 210. I wasn’t looking for it, and I don’t use it as a computer skill. Rather, the idea that data and information are different completely changed my thinking and realigned my thoughts toward being able to accomplish the vision burning inside of me each day.
See, I struggled for a time with cynicism, excusing it and sometimes exalting it with quotations like “Accurate perception is often called cynicism by those who lack it.” A trusty Wikipedia reference describes George Bernard Shaw as a Nobel Prize for Literature and Oscar Winner –admirable accomplishments, without question–yet I cannot rest on his wisecrack. If accurate perception means finding mere data and facts, information and truth are what turn otherwise grim realities into elements of a world still shot through with hope, still full of possibilities. (more…)
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Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Just in from Honduras, life is sweet and sad at once. While there are things to enjoy about every place and face, something about the hospitality among the world’s poorest just reels one in and captivates the soul. The snaggle toothed “sonrisas” of children and the food made by women cooking from stone-aged “appliances” reaffirmed that it does not take many resources to give, to serve, to love and to invest in others.
I’d try to pick that all apart–to define what it is to give, serve, love and invest but this reasoning mind is weary, even as my heart pounds through images–some captured on film, some impossible to contain–like some sort of slideshow impossible to ignore. Seeing extreme poverty, then returning for a lunch in Dallas in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country, I’m overwhelmed by both and for completely different reasons. The question is the same though: “Where do I start?” I could write a whole post on this alone. (more…)
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Monday, June 15th, 2009
Here is the email I wrote Dr. Murano in the wake of yesterday’s resignation:
Dr. Murano,
Just wanted to thank you for your service to Texas A&M during obviously difficult times. While I am certain that there will be those obnoxious few who gloat in your resignation–as if it were a victory–the truth is that I have deeply admired the courage it must have taken to lead in a place like Texas A&M where men run for Student Body President, men make Corps decisions, men necessarily make alumni gift decisions, and even if publicly praised, the real effects of diversity are taken as mere negative side effects to be stomached–not celebrated. Your grit, determination, and even willingness to take on such a position where personal integrity demands so much change, even as the pretense of “tradition” resists it, has been more than praiseworthy. (more…)
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Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
I’m about a day behind on some of my newspaper reading, but what I caught this morning (which was published yesterday) really enraged me–and that’s hard to do! While Reed College was the subject of the NY Times’ article on colleges accepting less qualified applicants on the sole basis of ability to pay, I imagine their admissions committee is not the only one acting similarly. I hear all the time that a “Bachelor’s degree is the new high school diploma,” and I want to know when our education system is going to stop seeking short term solutions that water down the quality of instruction I am able to get, not to mention the value of my “expensive piece of paper” to potential employers. (more…)
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