The time away from home, surrounded by colleagues and college students was both energizing and exhausting. As one of a team of about twenty who worked to plan the conference for the past 10 months, I spent the weekend knowing the schedule ins and outs, yet trouble-shooting as unforeseen but small issues came up.
Being with others who have a similar job to me is refreshing. They get what I mean when I say I have to go to work at 8pm for a "late night event" or understand my excitement over building signage. These are the people who speak my work language.
Whether you're a single gal, double-income no kids (DINK) couple, or a stay at home momma, I bet we've all experienced finding those friends who get it when we talk about our everyday life and don't have to explain what we mean because those friends have experienced similar situations.
When I was packing last week, I had fun putting together a few business casual outfits for the weekend. And what's funny is that I ended up not wearing two of those pictured. Oh well, you can only plan so much, right?!
These are my people. The ones who speak my language of working in student affairs. They work tirelessly with college students to mentor, inspire and care for them in their life outside of the classroom, planning co-curricular programs, offering on-campus jobs and teaching them life skills.
I'm grateful to have a job I love. I am thankful for this community of colleagues. I am blessed to be where I am in my career. My career does not define me, but it's given me colleagues I can look to for support and that is truly more than I could have asked for when I embarked on this path years ago.
As Thanksgiving approaches, what are you grateful for?
I saw your link on stillbeingmolly. I enjoyed reading your post and thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to have colleagues that you can look forward to supporting and friends that know you without you having to say a word. Those are definitely things worth being thankful for.
DINK. Love it! Never going to happen here. But I love the term. =)
ReplyDeletelove this post, beth!! i bet your presentations were awesome - wish i could have seen them! :) i'm thankful for a job. period. i know so many people who aren't as lucky to have a job (or even a steady one) - so for that i am grateful!
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that you enjoy your job! that is such a big blessing. I'm pretty lucky in that way too :)
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