Today, I had the fantastic opportunity to share lunch with some administrators at the university.  A good friend of mine, and also a member of the same program as I, Robyn Jones, is the Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Visitors.  I’ve interacted greatly with the BOV leadership, both administrative and student side over the years here, and was excited when she offered the opportunity to me.

On the way to the Inn this morning, I ran into two of my absolutely favorite people dining together – the current, and the previous Vice Presidents of Student Affairs, dining together, at the Inn. It was such a great site to see, as I let Dr. Perillo know that contacting her has been on my to do list for so very long (and vice versa, which was nice to know), and Dr. Spencer informed me that he enjoys my Facebook posts. Which I loved, especially after a conversation we had in class yesterday with Dr. Shushok about the power of connecting people through social media. Two of my very favorite people dining together.

Then I take a moment to go into the room where the administrators are waiting for us to get started, and get greeted by Dr. DePauw, VP & Dean of Graduate Education, Provost McNamee, President Steger, and Vice President Knox.  After chatting with them for a few minutes, I head toward the buffet line of the always-steller lunch (I tried not to be too weird and take a picture…and so I don’t have one. And please understand that that sadden’s me).  But with the juicy grilled flank steak, fresh tilapia, sweet potato ravioli (?), I’m sure you can assume that the meal was fantastic. Back to the story…

Not to be outdone, as I head toward the buffet line, I run into Dr. Vess & Dr. Plummer, Undergradaute Research Director and Assoc. Provost, respectively.

I share these stories not to be like omg I know this person and oh I know this person but one of the more remarkable things? They know me.  Of course, it’s easier as you spend more time at a university, but I love that my passion for this field has led to me to grow so many close relationships with so many administraors.  I can safely say, on any tour now, that when I come to Tech I don’t feel like a number, what so ever.  And I almost never have.

I think that it’s also worthy to reflect on a lot of the advice that Dr. Steger gave us.  I’ve attended similar luncheons as an undegraduate, but I can easily say that this one was the most impactful.  It was so nice to hear Dr. Steger talk abotu theology, and his 3-decade long interest in it.  When an international graduate student asked him, “What kind of advice can you give us? To weather the storm? To be successful? Because in China, it’s humility. But that doesn’t work here in the states.”

He replied so eloquently, that each major religious text has a piece about forgiveness.  Every single one. I’m no theologist, but I’d believe it.  And that even when you’re down, even when your proposal gets rejected, even when you think it’ll be hard to wake up the next day – you have to learn the power of forgiveness, as well as the power of power.  You have to just keep moving on. As Dr. Knox said, you sometimes just have to take your burise, push it in, and decide if it really does hurt that bad. It probably doesn’t. Roll with the punches::move on.

The administrators also talked about making sure that you understand what your values are. MAking sure that you know what’s importnat to you. I couldn’t stress that anymore.  That’s the crossroads that I blogged about last week. For me, it’s difficult because if I’m being honest – I’m not sure what all is important to me.  At times, I feel like there is just too much that is important to me.  But you know you just have to take the time, talk about what kinds of experience you want to have, and the nultimately decide where you want to end up.

I didn’t plan on this blog taking such a long form, but I felt it necessary to draw the contrast in these experiences, and to talk about what I got out of them.  Today’s been a crazy day.  I woke up late, at 6:15, and made it to the gym barely by 6:30 when I had to get home by 7.  I showered, got dressed in nicer clothes, and was just barely late a meeting with Dean DePauw, a meeting that was mostly about advising but was originally intended to be about an article I’m writing for the CT (published tomorrow!) about graduate school enrollments, nationally.

After that, I ran an errand to the post office, to deliver the pants I mentioned this morning in an earlier post.  Ran to the Post Office and back to campus, grabbed breakfast, and worked at Event Planning until 12:00.  At 12, I sprinted to the Inn for this brunch, that I deicded to stay at until 1:30 even though my class began at 1. And so, I got to class to find out we are getting out an hour early which was a welcomed surprise.  That allows me to collect my thoughts for the day, get home for Charlotte’s lunch, just ahead of going to McNair for my GA work, and then going to the media building to tape a promotional video for the TEDx Virginia Tech event in a month and one day!

What a Wednesday. But like I always say, atleast when I feel moved enough to blog about it – it definitely feels like all of this is worth it. It’s a lot of work but it’s worth it. Because I get to have such monumental, great advice-receiving moments like these.

Lastly, I’d like to give a special shout out to Ashton, for inboxing me about a great piece of advice that I intend to use in my TED video about what leadership means to me.  Thanks for reading!