Friday, January 17, 2014

Getting Higher(Ed)

Nice little play on words, eh?

Anyway, I basically got turned down for a blogging job for a Student Affairs online program a few days ago in which I would have chronicled my job search. Making lemonade of lemons, I've just decided I'm going to do it here! My usual smattering of random ramblings will be included, as well. Enjoy!

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   The shining new year of 2014 has already invoked in me that apprehensive, tingly feeling that is equal parts an optimistic excitement at the prospect of a clean slate and that certain dull dread that lingers right below your ribs when you remember you have a 10-page paper due tomorrow (not that that has ever happened to such a dedicated student as I). It is no small thing to be standing on the precipice of the beginning of one’s adult working life. Yes, I am a graduate assistant and I pay my own bills and so forth, but there is something much more important about the transition from part time student/employee/Netflix addict to full time adult with the entire package of responsibilities and liberties that entails. It’s thrilling and horrifying. However, above all things, I am choosing to embrace the hope that whispers through the not yet opened doors 
ahead of me. Ain’t it grand to be young and in search of your future?

   I've mentioned it before, but one of my favorite movie quotes comes from Harvey, a 1950 film about Elwood P. Dowd - a man who seems to be experiencing a mental crisis, hallucinating about a 6 foot tall rabbit named Harvey, with whom Dowd is good friends. Dowd is the type of person you hate when you have to go to the grocery store after a long day; someone who seems to be in a perpetual state of complete joy and satisfaction with his life. In one scene, Dowd recalls a moment with his mother and gives the audience a glimpse into just how sane he really is: “Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be’ - she always called me Elwood – ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’ Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.” My fellow plagiarism police will notice I am quoting him by his own permission. This quote is particularly attractive to me because it embodies a change I’ve experienced in my own life. For years I was smart; I 
recommend pleasant. And it is in that spirit of pleasantness – by which I mean being kind, well-humored, and generally joyful – that I want to continue in my job search.

   The profession (some would say vocation) of Student Affairs is of such a nature that it 
can shift in extremes from wordlessly taxing on one’s mind and body to infinitely, wonderfully 
rewarding. Keeping that in mind, I don’t expect my search for a position in Student Affairs to be 
any different. I expect the mountains and hope for the valleys and I yearn most for the peaks. 
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go revise my résumé for the 127th
all three extended edition Lord of the Rings DVD’s to drown out my inevitable self-esteem 
issues. 

Until next time, be kind to each creature!

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