Day 11: Re-Orienting

Who's this handsome devil?

I am forcing myself to keep this post to two paragraphs because I am wiped out. Sorry that's how every post has been starting, but it's true. I haven't gotten to sleep before 1 AM for the past three nights, which would be fine except I'm waking up at 6:30 every day, so my body is running on empty at the moment.

Today was the last full day of orientation before the students arrive. It was hectic, but productive. I got my classroom set up (which was incredibly stressful to me, probably just because I was tired; our room is REALLY small, and even fitting eight chairs in was a struggle) and took care of a lot of menial last minute tasks. I started working with my team on preparations for our College Day booth on clubs and extracurricular options. I re-taught ten minutes of my lesson from yesterday to try and improve upon my mistakes (which, according to my IC, I did successfully). I wrote a bunch of Kudos (thank you notes) to my coworkers and put them on their boards. I finished my students' picture frames and posted them on the staircase. I even got the chance to call my four advisees and talk to (two of) them for the first time. It was a bit of an emotional roller coaster today, but it ended positively as I came back to the dorm, got pizza with Logan, Nick and Francisco, finished my frames and hung out with some other PAD-mates.

Look what the high school interns did for us!

My main takeaway from today is that I need to find a better system of organization for myself this summer. While last year, I was able to run on four hours of sleep with little issue, this year my body does not seem to be handling the sleep deprivation aspect of this job very well. I need to limit my perfectionism, rely more on my coworkers and be more proactive in keeping a to-do list (including replying to emails for my activities back at Penn, which I have been majorly slacking on, though I haven't had a minute to sit and think about them). In the middle of the day, I found myself getting overwhelmed and tense, so I now recognize that I need to refocus my energies and center myself in the reasons why I am here. Orientation is over... time to re-orient.

My classroom, all ready to go... I can't help but wonder what the next six weeks in this little seminar room have in store.

Until next time,
Nate

P.S. Throwback to an old post I wrote for my dorm's blog back in freshman year...