Welcome to a new semester...

The new semester is about to start. The residence hall opens tomorrow, classes start on Monday.
This will be my last semester here. It's so weird to think about that. Part of me is excited - I'm ready to move on. I think I'd get burned out and wouldn't be able to put 100 percent into my job anymore if I stayed for another year - but it's also strange to think that I'll be leaving here. I've become really comfortable here - I know what my job entails, I feel comfortable with the different responsibilities we have here (even though there's always areas to improve in), I know the different departments and student organizations and many of the student leaders here. It's not going to be that easy to leave.

I thought the Tunnel of Oppression would be this amazing, awesome event - THE big thing - my big contribution before I left. And I thought I would have this feeling of accomplishments, of "closure" at the end of it. But I didn't. The Tunnel went alright - but not as well as I would have liked. There were just little but annoying behind-the-scenes thing. We made it a little bigger (more tours, three instead of two days) but we still struggled with the student groups we worked with, volunteers were a mess (because not everyone who signed up actually showed up) and I just felt like we could have done a better job.

So now I have this new event - the Invisible Children Challenge. One of my RAs and I are organizing it. I've worked with Invisible Children for three years - a couple roadies came here during my first year and contacted RHA (which then meant that RHA contacted me since I was one of their advisors) and we hosted a showing of the documentary. Last year, one of my residents was very passionate about Invisible Children and as an entire community we got involved with Invisible Children. We did showings and fundraisers, tried to get other halls involved and really focused on spreading the word about Invisible Children. Last semester, I offered to do showings in other halls - only three took me up on this opportunity but that's better than nothing, right? So this being my last semester here, it's only appropriate that we are doing something HUGE related to Invisible Children.
The Challenge will be a competition between different teams to see who can get the most people to see the documentary, raise the most money, sell Invisible Children merchandise, collect books and and and. At the end of the competition, we are having a big Closing Ceremony (with some educational components such as information about our partner school in Uganda, the current situation in Uganda and small group discussions). Of course there'll be some entertainment. We're trying to get one of our a-cappella groups to sing. And we've booked our favorite band, We The Living, to come and perform.
And here's the frustrating part: People seem to assume that I'm only doing this because I wanted to have a reason to organize another We The Living concert. I'm not going to lie, that was very convenient and I definitely wanted those guys to come back and play here again. But I've been passionate about Invisible Children a long time before I'd even heard about We The Living. It's just one of those fun coincidences that my favorite band is also passionate about the same cause as I am - also one of the reasons why I like them.
But I feel like some staff members aren't even giving this Invisible Children Challenge a chance and aren't even taking it seriously simply because it involves my favorite band. How is that for being childish?

And I really want this event to be successful. This could be my big thing - part of my legacy. And maybe I'll be able to get that feeling - that feeling of having accomplished something big, of being happy with what we've done, of finding closure - knowing that I've done great things here and can now move on. I don't want the last thing that people will remember about me be a big flop. And I feel like so many things haven't gone as well as I'd wanted them to this year - so I need this. Even just for myself - to know that I can still do great things.

Okay, enough about Invisible Children...

I've had a hard time motivating myself lately. I have tons of stuff to do but I sit around and daydream or simply do NOTHING. The semester hasn't even started yet and I already feel like I'm behind with work. I haven't updated my resume yet or really looked at available positions. I haven't even done much stuff for the Invisible Children Challenge - I have a whole list of things that I need to do and so far I've only played around with the Web site and come up with a t-shirt design - and that while we really need to roll out phase one of our advertising on Monday. There aren't going to be enough hours in the day tomorrow. I should probably try to get some more work done tonight but I'm just tired and my eyes hurt...so I think I'll just go to bed and try to wake up early tomorrow.

And so a new semester is beginning....