Hello World

I can tell you exactly when I first heard a Lady Antebellum song–it was the fall travel season of 2008, and I was in my rental car driving up to the Long Island National Fair somewhere along the Jersey turnpike.  I thought they were pretty awesome, and have continued to thinks so.  When their newest album came out earlier this year, I was pretty excited, especially since I had fun new technology to go along with it  It’s a great album, but I didn’t have the chance to really listen to the lyrics until the past two weeks.  I’m not sure if it was the 2600 plus miles I drove, the excitement of seeing you all out there, or what exactly it was, but just about every other song on this album made me sob in the car.  Especially this one….

I know most people think it’s funny that I’m such an introvert and homebody (especially if you’ve met me at a college fair), but I am.  Aside from recruiting the future of Sweet Briar, nothing gives me more joy than being here on MV Drive, puttering around the house and spending time with my family.  I love the travel, don’t get me wrong, but the older I get the more this space becomes more and more like home.

Good news is that I don’t think any of you knew I was having Pansy Fest 2010 in my rental car when I met with you at a fair or a Starbucks  More good news is that this trip was a highly successful one–I met great new students, saw some awesome members of our Class of 2014, and I had the good fortune to see colleagues I haven’t seen in a while.  It was a great trip.

But all great things come to an end, and I am happy and elated to report that I’m here blissfully at home with JGL, my little boy and little girl (Carson and Lucy)…Hello World

Good tables make good neighbors

One of the fun things that happens as an admissions counselor during fair season is that typically your tables are grouped alphabetically.  Kind of a no brainer, right?  Well, part of what is awesome about this is the predictability, and the other is really incredible conversations, and in some cases friendships, that ensue when you stand next to the same person for hours upon hours on end.  I love seeing my students when I travel, I love seeing my family when I travel, but no one else gets all the little nuances of travel like a bona fide Travel Buddy.

Tonight I had the distinct pleasure of bumping into not just one, but TWO Travel Buddies–Karen from Syracuse and Scott from Trinity.  And by nature of the glorious alphabet, Sweet Briar is next to Syracuse who is next to Trinity.  I am in travel bliss!  Fantastic conversations and joking in between chatting with students, folks to eat a real adult sit down meals with, and two very kindred spirits who I admire personally and professionally and enjoy spending time with.

I probably don’t articulate this enough (and Lord knows I’m horrible about keeping up after work hours), but I’m so grateful and honored to be in a profession where I meet good people every single day.

And we’re off

It’s the end of the first full day of “I have appointments on my books” travel, and how quickly I forget just how tough this is.  I’ve been so heavily focused on my seniors, it’s hard trying to shift gears and essentially start over again.  It’s very cool, in a lot of ways, but being able to balance both with grace and poise during the last few weeks of April has always been, and will always be, a challenge–one I plan to rise to!

Stats for the past two days…

Number of students I’ve met:  I met quite a few great girls tonight–I appreciate the hospitality, CT!

Miles driven:  Approximately 750 miles

Number of caffeinated beverages: 5?  I lost count….

Vitamins left: 10

Cement Truck, Part II

Part of the story that gets left out sometimes is the fact that I was meeting two alumnae for lunch the day of the fateful Cement Truck Accident.  Tara is a lovely ’99 alumna who was just as helpful as Ms. Bea was, we just didn’t share the intimate hour and a half car ride back to West Lebanon.

May ’09 was my five-year reunion here at the Briar, and as JGL and I were standing in line to get food, the woman in front of me whipped around and said, “I know you from somewhere….”  Out of the hundreds of people at reunion, Tara (who was celebrating her 10 year reunion) and I  just happened to pick the same food line at the same time.  It was so great to see her again, and introduce JGL to one of the players in that infamous story he’s heard over and over.

Today, with the magic of Facebook, Tara popped up again.  She and her fiancé are one of the five finalists for the Clay Hill Farms Green Wedding Giveaway. I share this not because I’m a sucker for weddings, but for two other purposes:

1. Tara was a studio art major at Sweet Briar, and now is a Photographer in the White Mountain Region.  Her submission for this contest is all her own photography, and it is beautiful!  What an incredible way to take what you love and transform it into what you do in the “real world!”
2. I believe in good juju and karma and what goes around comes around and the “Old Girls Network” here at SBC–help a good Vixen out and VOTE FOR TARA!

Baby, it’s COLD outside!

It’s beyond chilly outside! Most mornings this week as I’ve driven to work I hear most of my counties in Southwest VA rattled off by the newscaster on NPR for 1-2 hour delays for it being too cold outside. This is relatively out of the norm for this area this time of the year, but I consider it to be a welcomed addition to our January–it feels a lot more like home that way

One of the perks of being back in our office right after the holidays is that folks have fun goodies to share. The big share of the day was the soundtrack to Glee, and I’m pretty sure all of us counselors are jamming out to it simultaneously right now I came into the Glee fan club late this season, but I have to admit it’s pretty gosh darn phenomenal and smart. How does this have to do with weather and/or SWVA?

Jayma Mays, who plays Emma, is originally from Grundy, VA How cool is that for a slightly random connection today?

SWVA is on my mind today not just because of Glee and school cancellations, but because I get to venture down there later this month for a Why a Women’s College Panel at Virginia Tech. We get to speak to over 100 students from the SWVA area who are involved in Upward Bound about the benefits of attending a place like SB. I’m really excited to meet some new faces and share why I loved my educational experience here, but I’m also hoping that my students in SWVA will want to come out and meet me for a cup of coffee after the event to chat about SB, what they’re excited about, what they are most nervous about, and any questions they might have about SBC. My goal is to get letter out asap, and fingers crossed that all you Southwest Virginians out there want to come see me in droves!

For the time being, though, I’m going to scootch my space heater a little closer, tug my scarf a little tighter, and enjoy the sweet sounds of Glee while I work Happy Thursday!

Jetting with Julia

A few thoughts on our trip back to SBC…

1. In my last post I neglected to give mad props to JetBlue! This was my first time jetting with them (although my students have been utilizing the cheap and conveinient flights for years now), and it was such a pleasant experience! If you’re considering flying down with your folks to visit campus in this new year, keep the JetBlue option in your back pocket!

2. We rediscovered Julia Child, and now I’m in WGBH withdrawl. I’ve read the book, seen the movie, and JGL was kind enough to get me the biography for Christmas. What I had forgotten and my mother was quick to remind me was that growing up Julia came on the half hour before Sesame Street, so I had been watching Julia before I even learned how to cook. After watching several episodes this week it was amazing how the theme music really should have been followed by Big Bird.

Random, I know, but good food for thought-it’s amazing what rubs off on you when you’re not even thinking about it

3. While I love where I’ve come from, I’m excited to see where we’re going. More importantly, where you’re going

Home

I’m sitting here in Logan next to JGL sipping on hot Dunkin Donuts coffee and mooching off of the free holiday wifi (yet another reason I LOVE GOOGLE!), and remembering quite vividly when I first moved away from home.

The truck was packed, I couldn’t sleep at all the night before, we were on the road by 4 am, and I remember being terrified about the new adventure I was about to embark upon all the while putting on a good face for my parents and sister.

Leaving never gets easier, and our adventure today feels eerily like that first trip down-couldn’t sleep, alarm went off at 3 am, and off we go.

It’s hard, and I don’t pretend that it isn’t. With the new year upon us, many of you will be making treks down to see us, and weighing the options of if this is worth it. Is heading to a new state, a new part of the country, all of that worth it?

I think it is, especially when SB is the perfect fit for you. This leaving part always stinks, but the being in control of your own life adventure is priceless.

Until the next time, MA!

Thanks

I am proud to say that I am a first generation college student.  It’s a fact I share freely, but one most people find surprising.  In fact, I remember distinctly when my boss was trying to pinpoint who on our counseling staff might be a FG student, and I was not on that radar at all.

My application to Sweet Briar got misplaced by the USPS for a few days during a major snow storm the week before the application was due, and this was before the time when you could submit materials online.  As a result, we had to go to my High School, grab copies of all my info, and rush them down to the Briar (moral of the story…apply early!).  My father had the foresight to copy my recommendations, and I rediscovered them during my time in MA this trip.  I was struck by how all of my teacher’s and counselors made a point to include a line about my parents, something that I don’t often see in recommendations today.  When I was 17, I couldn’t understand why that was important–Mom and Dad weren’t going to college, I was.  But at 27 and having worked with families who either struggle to make SB an option for their daughters, or won’t engage in the process at all, it makes a whole lot of sense.  Especially if you plug that first generation piece in.

Not to say that just because you might be a FG student you should get special treatment–as a fellow FG, nothing bugs me more than when I hear people make excuses for students because they are FG.  But I am extremely grateful for my parents for stepping up and being honest with my sister and I–they didn’t have the collegiate experience, and as such we had to do extra homework to make sure that ours would be the right fit.

So Mom and Dad–thank you for this amazing opportunity that SB provided for me and continues to provide for me.  Thanks for your support, your love, and your time.  Thanks for letting me save the college some cash by crashing in my childhood bedroom over the last week or so, and thank you for helping me become the woman I am today.

I promise you that one of these days I’ll get you into Golden Acres instead of Shady Pines

 

Hawks

I think New Hampshire has some of the best local Public TV programing I’ve seen. I’m biased, of course, because I rarely watch it down home in MA or VA, and my grandparents are addicted to NHPTV, especially Chronicle.  We just finished watching a program about the Broad-Winged Hawk, which chronicled the migratory patterns of these exceptional creatures from their birth in NH, to the incredible view at Hawk Mountain in PA (near my sister!), all the way to Ecuador.  It’s amazing to think that what the good people of New Hampshire do in terms of their environment and such eventually affects the Eco-Tourism economy of Ecuador.  How incredible is the fact that we are all so interconnected in such meaningful ways. 

I was most touched, I think, with the segment about an Iraq War veteran who was disabled during his tour of duty while serving our country.  His recovery, physically and emotionally, has been long and painful–but a newfound love of bird watching (specifically these Broad-Winged Hawks) has helped him overcome his injury, and his ability to connect (and reconnect) with people back in his community.  He now acts as a bird guide in one of these bird sanctuaries teaching others about hawks, migration patterns, and conservation.

If we all took the time to foster these small, meaningful connections, imagine how much better our world would be.

Turkey in the straw…or the road?

I once saw a Service Monkey at a high school in MA who had failed the Service Monkey exam and was going to be euthanized.  The high school valiantly rescued the animal, and deemed the high school its home.  It was a senior priviledge to be able to take said Service Monkey around on his school rounds.

I see random stuff when I travel.

So I thought I would share this gem with you.  I thought I saw a one legged turkey near Springfield, MA.  That’s right folks, look closely…one leg.  Right in the middle of a busy intersection during morning traffic.  Crazy, huh?  (and I promise I was stopped in traffic when I took this picture)In case you’re wondering about the Turkey’s well being, after several minutes of being stopped in traffic, he put down the leg you can’t see in this picture and waddled down the road.  Apparently turkey’s stand one legged when they get cold.  I felt bad for the poor bird, though–even though I thought the whole thing was very amusing, he looked so cold, out of sorts, and confused.  I guess I would be too if I wandered out of the woods into a busy street.

Until Thanksgiving, One Legged Turkey, until Thanksgiving….