Moving Forward So Fast

Being a graduate student means a large majority of your life revolved around numbers.  The number of hours you must complete to graduate.  The number of people you need in order to make your thesis research valid.  The number of projects you have left to complete and the number of hours you don't have to complete them.  As an out of control idealist, I wish I could forget all of those trivial numbers and how much they irritate me, to focus on the number of people I can affect on a daily basis.  As this blog is titled, An Adventure in Student Affairs, our focus and my focus should be the students.  The people. 
Ultimately there will be administrative tasks to whatever position I will work in my lifetime.  It will be the way I manage, think about, and act upon these tasks that will make all the difference.  By complaining about the paperwork needed to complete a task, I have just spent more time on the administrative task than I should have.  Instead of complaining about how much I hate travel authorization forms, I will send an email to or sit down with a student I have seen struggling.  Lord knows I would rather be doing this task than completing paperwork. 

While I typically treat numbers quite poorly, I also recognize their significance.  For example, the number of days until I start my new job or graduate.  These dwindling numbers mean I have a limited amounts of time to spend with my peers and continue to learn from them.  In the past I would have let this terrify me.  I would have been so afraid to lose friends and mentors that it would have paralyzed my ability to function.  Not anymore.  Perhaps one of the reasons I am more comfortable now is because I know how to find them on Facebook and stalk the hell out of them.  The other reason is that I know the bonds and relationships I create now can withstand much more than I may even know.  Not talking to someone in five months doesn't mean you don't value the relationships, it means you are busy. 

If you have ever read Malcolm Gladwell's, The Tipping Point (I hope that's the right book), you know there are different types of people.  I am a connector.  Every part of me in a connector.  I know people who know people.  I don't even use them for personal gain.  I make relationships with people because it is truly what I love to do.  If there is such a diagnosis as a "hopeless extrovert," I would have that disease.  Hands down.  My adventure in student affairs is just beginning, but I am sure it will take me far and wide and meet plenty of people.  I will be able to connect with anyone and everyone, everywhere. 

Time for me is moving forward so fast.  My days truly are numbered, but the good kind of numbered.  I'm beyond excited for what comes next. 

Moving forward so fast...but not too fast.