Before I got into Student Affairs, I went to college to be a teacher. Someone once said that the three best reasons to be a teacher are: June, July, and August. I remember how that made me laugh… and while it didn’t have anything to do with why I did or didn’t become a teacher, it makes me think about summer. And how my formative years shape how I want summer to be…
I loved college summers because of my summer friends. My summer friends were the freshmen orientation team, housing summer conferences staff and the various camp/summer job co-workers that I collected while away from campus.
Aside from the people, the pace of the summer was different than during the academic year. I believe that was partly because of the weather and fewer students were taking classes. But it was more than that too. During the summer, weekdays and weekend days are more likely to blur, meetings could take place outside, there were very fast paced days and slow days… there was less consistency in my summer, but I enjoyed approaching each new day as a challenge!
As a professional, I have gotten to a point that I believe summer is one of those work season that you either hate or love… some people love having a new role in the summer- instead of working with residence hall students, summers bring camps, conferences, central office work or special projects. Summers appeal to others because of the weather, time off (10-month hall directors, right?), or all the time they get to spend preparing for next year! But others hate their summer assignments, how camps get scheduled (yes, we have one that starts on July 4th, really.), or because of other time constraints.
One thing most can agree on is that summer is unlike the rest of the year when it comes to what we do in Housing and Residence Life- the pace, the roles, the differences vary from campus to campus and how you feel about your campus will vary too. Taking time to consider your summer and how you feel about it can help you either embrace it or make the most of it. Keep working hard, take time to enjoy the summer and make the most of every day! A big part of summer is preparing for fall… but more on that in the Leadership Sub-committee’s next blog post… 
As for me, I’m going to miss old summer friends and make new ones!
Love the post, Julia. Summer is a total change of life on our campus. We shift into project/planning mode–it is strange getting used to office time and WAY fewer meetings. It is a nice change of pace, but I know I’ll be very eager to welcome our students back once the school year rolls around!
Comment by Lindsey Marx Boylen — June 21, 2011 @ 9:28 am |