The View From Here

A few weeks ago my supervisor told me to "not be so defensive" as I attempted to explain to her what happened about a task after she had told me that I did it "all wrong." As you can imagine, I only felt more defensive even when I was trying to, yes, defend (or in my perspective, explain) myself. Being who I am I proceeded to process this "feedback" by role-playing the situation in one of my classes (oh yes I did) a nd seeing my therapist the next day. Lessons Learned: 1. A new appreciation for those who do the grunt work in offices. We should all be extra-nice to admin assistants. 2. I have been that much too critical voice and can be such a hard a** when things don't go my way. Time to be more gracious. 3. Don't stay at a job or in situations where you are disrespected or seen as a peon. As such they don't deserve your loyalty. 4. Some people may be (fill in the blank) and feel they have no reason to change but that doesn't ...

A few moments ago I was reading thank-you notes from students that had worked with over the years.  Some of these notes go back to graduate school in 1998 and others as recent as last year.  It was no surprise that I found myself tearing up and experiencing waves of gratitude for these students (and many, many others) who made my work so worthwhile and deeply rewarding. As I reflect on those notes, I'm reminded how often I don't realize how my work is making difference for anyone let alone the world.  But it does. And it's not so much heaping accolades on me; rather it's about recognizing who I am and what I do comes from a greater purpose that goes way beyond me. As a former boss said to me, "Save those thank you notes. You never know when you need them to be  motivated once again for what you do." And he was right.  It also reminds me how important it is to write those notes as they may make as much as a difference as they did for me only a moment ago.

It has been way too long since my last blog posting, which I admit I snagged from my previous posting that I wrote for my job at Providence College.  Since last May I've made a couple of major decisions in my life - one of which was resigning from my full-time job at director for student multicultural activities and returning to graduate school and the other was sharing my space with a new apartment mate who also happens to be (at least for me) an off the chart extrovert.  Both decisions have been life-changing in many ways. I have to confess that I LOVE being back in school full-time.  What can I say? I love to read, study and write papers.  My introverted self is loving all of this as I get to spend lots of time by myself and delving into interesting topics.  Also I realized after having worked in diversity and social justice effort at PWIs (Primarily White Institutions) that I was emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted.  As much as diversity an...