Mixing It Up: NACA Northeast 2014

Bears on Day 1 - ready to take on #NACAne!

A couple of weekends ago, I ventured down to Hartford with 11 awesome BSU students and 4 other awesome BSU staff members for the NACA Northeast Regional Conference! Because I'm nearing the end of my graduate experience and will soon be on the job hunt, my approach to tackling this conference was a bit different than last year's approach, which was basically "omg I have no clue what I'm doing so I guess I'll just try everything" (my normal approach to anything in life).

This year, with the help of my OSIL buds, I tried my best to become more involved on-site as well as meet as many people as my shy, introvert self can handle. I do want NACA to become a big part of my professional life and because I'm planning to stay in the region, I wanted to be sure I met a good number of my future colleagues while I was there.

My fear of public speaking is written all over my face...

I had the opportunity to present an educational session with my direct supervisor on program board advising, and while I was pretty nervous to share my experiences with a room full of established professionals, I think it was received well and we received many positive comments from those that attended, which is always encouraging!

I also, of course, got to spend a significant amount of time with the BSU delegation (the best part of the conference). They always make me so proud with how much heart and energy they put into everything they do, including attending conferences! They really see the value of attending things like the NACA Regional conferences and know that what they learn will benefit more than themselves, which is pretty amazing in my eyes.

#bearpaws

I'm hoping that I will get the chance to attend NACA Northeast again in 2015 (the way NACA works is that you have to be part of a "member institution", as a student or a professional, in order to be a part of the organization, so if I don't end up landing a job at a member institution before next November I won't be able to go :/) but even if it doesn't work out I know that NACA will be in my very near future regardless!

Personal Life Black Hole

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've actually told you what's been going on in my personal life, but that's because my personal life and school/work life have essentially been the same thing over the past month or so. Basically, my personal life has become a black hole where all of the fun has turned into work. (#yikes) Not that I don't love my jobs (because I absolutely do!), it's just that personal time has just been non-existent the past month or so and it's be stressful. Yes, April/May is probably the most hectic time in college land, and being both a student and a staff member, it's been especially so for me this year (and probably will be again next year). I figured it was about time I gave y'all a life update, though, so I'm going to sift through my calendar and tell ya what I've been up to.

Nick, Louie, Mom, Dad, and I at the Dean Dash 5K - literally in my backyard!

1. Running more regularly. Post-marathon, I let grad school and work kind of take over my life and the stress and exhaustion they caused and the time they consumed it became excuses to not exercise. Somehow in the month of April I found the time to clock in 22.17 miles - which would be low for me at any other time in my life, but it incredible for me right now. This puts me at just under 40 miles to reach my 100-miles-for-the-year-by-the-end-of-May goal! Once the semester ends I will absolutely have more time to train as I am going to be signing up for the New Hampshire Marathon soon, as well as (hopefully) another half for the summer. Can't wait to get back at it!

The amazing crew that made Springfest possible!

2. Springfest! This was one loooooong week of events at BSU, sponsored by the lovely club that I advise! They put on a carnival, movie night (The Lego Movie is amazing, btw), a comedy show, and several novelties - all of which were a huge success! Even though I didn't get home until about 11:30pm every night during that week, seeing this event come to life and go off without a hitch made me so proud of my students. All of that lost sleep was worth it - they're truly amazing!

3. Taking up occasional yoga. Runner's World has a few different yoga videos specifically for runners and I've been trying a few of them out lately. It's really helped with all my sore muscles (go figure) and has really made some of the stress melt away - even if just for a moment. It's good to have a coach type person to put me through a stretching regimen, because I'm not disciplined enough to stretch myself!

My amazing CA's tearing up as they give me a gift at the ResLife banquet :') <3

4. Banquet & Awards Season. With the end of the year comes banquets and award ceremonies for every office that you may be involved in. In the past week, I've attended a banquet for the club I advise, an award ceremony for student leaders at BSU, the Dean ResLife banquet, and another banquet for highly involved member of the club I advise as well as alumni who were involved in the club! It's always great to recognize the amazing students that we work with every day, but it's also extremely bittersweet to say goodbye to everyone - especially if they're graduating or leaving for whatever other reason - so things can get pretty emotional (if you can't tell from the photo above)!

Presenting to Student Leaders at Lasell!

5. Presentations on presentations on presentations. Over the past few weeks, I've been speaking publicly for various reasons. I presented two awards at one of the many ceremonies I've attended over the past couple days, I went back to Lasell to give a presentation to some awesome student leaders, and I gave an in-class presentation for one of my courses. Public speaking, for whatever reason, makes me really nervous. I don't know what it is, because the idea of it isn't really all that terrifying to me, but once I get up there I can just feel my face getting red and my hands shaking. I don't know if it's the adrenaline or what, but it's really annoying and I wish I would just get over it! That's why taking opportunities like this makes it a bit easier like this every time. Maybe one day I'll be able to present without the nerves attached to it (I used to be able to!) but for now I just gotta push through each and every presentation and it will get easier over time.

6. Finishing up course work (of course [ha]). The past few weeks all of my assignments have been due. It's been pretty absurd. But I'm now at the point where I am one paragraph to edit and two classes away from being DONE with the semester. I can't. Freaking. Wait.

We close at Dean on Saturday which frees me up to celebrate by 24th birthday! (What?!) 

This weekend is SOOOOO needed and I can't wait for the next few days to be over with so I can enjoy the weekend with a bunch of awesome people! :)

What have you been up to?