Orientation – The story of an “I” masquerading as an “E” & Other silly tales.

First off, let me just say that @CindyKane nailed it with her recent blog post, “Orientation: Not Your Average Life” – every word of that was so true and it could not have come at a more perfect time in my own professional life. Having just completing our Orientation Leader Training as well as our first Summer Orientation overnight for the summer, I’ve had quite a bit to reflect on in regards to Orientation.

First off, while it may not always be known to those who see my “goofy” side, I am walking around this earth as an “I” (in regards to MBTI – for those not familiar) so when it comes to Orientation I know I have to bring out the “E”.  My supervisor does the majority of the tasks that involve being loud and boisterous and in front of 500 people at a time, while my strengths lie in the organizational, nitty gritty details of Orientation. So when I meet a parent and they tell me their name, I generally respond with “Oh, your son is Matthew” or “Oh yes, Sally and Jane are your daughters.” And I always get a genuinely surprised response to my mental memory capacity. And then I’ll spend 15 minutes walking across campus discussing their life stories because I encountered them on some sort of personal level, one on one. Herein lies my strength. I’m not the one when Orientation is over that the students will say “I LOVE YOU! YOU WERE AWESOME!” (some seriously said that to my supervisor – but that’s what you say after seeing his crazy antics) But I’m ok with that.  I’m ok with the fact that I’m not up in front of everyone and that they will all know who I am when Orientation is over and done.  But to watch a parent walk away from me with a new calmness and smile on their face works for me. This orientation session allowed for little down time, which wore me out, but I found those quiet moments by myself or with one of my Student Directors to reenergize and regroup.  So that my “E” could really tear it up on the dance floor.

While I’m still waiting to get official evaluations back from my Orientation Leaders, I also have reflected on my experience with all of them during our training week. If anyone knows of a job in Student Affairs that is just leadership training and development all the time, please let me know so I can apply.  This is my favorite part of my job, hands down.  I hear from a lot of other people involved in Orientation and they will spend up to 2 weeks training their student staff.  I often wonder if we should take more time with our student staff in order to best prepare them for their positions as Orientation Leaders.  We basically start on a Tuesday afternoon and they have Orientation Session 1 that Friday morning. So pretty much 2.5 days of training.  So am I really preparing all of them (only 4 of which have had the OL position before – out of 16) for what they are about to face full force when new students and their families arrive?  But then we have a wrap up, and I hear things like:

“You all made me step out of my comfort zone.”
“This was one of the best experiences of my life.”

And then I have a new student who writes on an eval:

“My orientation leaders were absolutely wonderful, they treated me as their equal and respected the opinions I offered. They made it their first priority to include every group member into the discussions and ice breakers.  They answered all of my questions completely as well as answered questions I did not know I had.  They were great and made me love orientation.”

In other words, Mission Accomplished.

Last week and weekend was one of my most tiring yet.  I started every day with an alarm buzzing at 6:30am and didn’t get home until after midnight each day, falling asleep closer to 1:30am. Having the “go-go-go” mentality all day long did not help my “I” replenish that much.  I depended way too much on my daily morning trips to Dunkin Donuts. But I also have to say that I don’t know if I have every laughed that much in my life.  Once you hit those late hours in the office, double checking keys and room assignments and labels and any other little detail possibly imaginable, you tend to get a little slap happy.  So quoting movies like “Wayne’s World” and “The Princess Bride” seem normal, as does having your NODA Intern (@BrianLeDuc) singing “Dream Weaver” from across the office. (Sorry Brian – I had to say it) But I watched the team gel together into this unbreakable force.  My Student Directors just stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park.  The entire team welcomed Brian and Mandy (our interns) right into the mix almost instantaneously. And even when we had some rowdy kiddos (aka new first-year students) in the Residence Hall that Friday night, we still found time to laugh and giggle before having to put on our “Mean face” as Abby put it. When it came right down to it, I found myself laying in bed with really sore feet and brain overload, smiling at the amazing group of students I get to work with all summer.

Just one of my favorite photos from the weekend.