Happy Everyone Thinks They’re Irish Day!

Spring Break is almost done. This makes me a  little sad and at the same time happy. I’m looking forward to having more students in my office as they start realizing that they are graduating and have really no idea what they are doing after May 12th (graduation). The week or so right after Spring Break tends to be when the panic sets in for those students. As freaked out as these students are, I really enjoy helping them start to figure out the answers to those big questions (i.e. what the heck am I going to do with the rest of my life?). It’s the meat of career counseling. What I’ll hear most is…”I wish I had come in sooner.” I will promptly answer, “Well, you’re here now, let’s do as much as work as we can.” In my head, I’ll probably also add, “Duh.”

Okay, so it has been an absolutely beautiful week this week. Today alone, we set a new record high. My weather.com app said 74* when I got back from my walk this afternoon. 74*!!! In Northern MN! In the middle of March! It’s awesome. However, there’s also part of me wondering…if it’s this warm already, what will the summer be like? I guess only time will tell. I took full advantage of the weather this week. I was down on the Lakewalk 4 times! Let’s start with today.

My hand in the water. It’s a little hard to tell since it was a spot that was sheltered from the waves by some rocks.

I added movement to the water.

Yesterday was a bit windier with a cool breeze coming off the water.

Yesterday’s waves via Instagram (a fun photo editing app on my phone).

I mentioned in my last post that my parents were here last weekend. The three of us took a more leisurely stroll on the lakewalk (as opposed to the rest of this week when I power walked and earned my sweat) and made our way all the way down to Canal Park. We spent some time on the beach and eventually had lunch before making our way back to the car.

Aerial Lift bridge

This next week will be a busy one. My sister will be staying with me because it’s her Spring Break! I’m super excited for her to arrive. My office is participating in a campus-wide event for which I have several small projects I need to complete. And…I’ll be heading to Louisville next Saturday for ACPA!! I’m thrilled to be reunited with my friend Steph for this conference (just in case I haven’t made that known yet). I don’t how much blogging I’ll be able to do while I’m at the conference just because I’m only taking my iPad, no laptop. If anything, I’ll do a full recap, once I’m home.

Hope you’re enjoying the beautiful weather!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

P.S. I’m actually part Irish, so I can legitimately celebrate.

Breaking into Spring

It’s Spring Break here in the Northland…which means work is super quiet. Yay! As much as I love working with students day in and day out, it’s nice to have the day to myself sometimes. I’ve used my time to get ready for the conference I’m going to at the end of the month, to work on a couple long-term projects I have, and to prep for an event on-campus our office is participating in next week.

My Spring Break kicked off with a weekend visit from my parents. We spent a very strenuous (insert “Sarcasm” sign a la Big Bang Theory) weekend of eating out and enjoying the nice weather by walking on the Lakewalk. I still need to go through my photos from the weekend so I should have those up in the next day or two. Here’s a photo I snapped with my phone…my brand new iPhone 4S! I’ve had an iPhone 3G for the last 2 years, so it was absolutely wonderful to upgrade finally.

Lake Superior from the shore by Canal Park

With my parents came a brand new bookcase my dad built for me. On Monday evening I finally put binders from grad school and books on it and did some styling. It’s mind boggling the amount of books I could actually stuff onto that thing. However, I think it’ll always be a mix between books and decor.

My new bookcase!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous this week. We’ve had temps in the 50s and there’s promise of warmer weather this coming weekend and next week. I did my exercise outside Tuesday after work and tackled another chunk of the Lakewalk. It seemed that everyone from the casual stroller to the serious runner were out on the Lakewalk.

Lake Superior & Duluth from the Lakewalk

I’m excited for tomorrow because my lunch buddy will be back in town! How does it happen that the week we could have our pick of lunch tables at the prime lunch time, she’s off across the country at a conference? Ah, it’s all good. I’ll get to hear about her trip at lunch tomorrow.

All in all, it’s been a nice Spring Break. How are you celebrating the return of spring?

 

Students, Students, and More Students

The last few weeks have been busy with school, internship interviewing/searching, and work. One of the awesome things that I do in my work as a Graduate Assistant, is meet with students about their career needs. The last few weeks’ appointments keep reminding me why I love Student Affairs – the individual student. Each one of them is so different and has so much to offer the professional world (and our campus). I’ve been working with business majors, english majors, undecided students, and many more. I love not knowing 100% what a student is coming in to see me about. Yes, it’s nice to have some heads up, in case I need to prepare a bit (i.e. mock interviews or career planning). What I really enjoy the most is getting to know the students and helping them figure out what steps they will take next whether here on-campus or out into the “real world.”

Luckily, next week is Spring Break! It seems that the mood on-campus is a bit more tense, stressed, and tired than normal. It all makes sense though. No one has really had a break since January. Time to take the next week and relax. Or, in my case, work on research and paper writing in a more relaxing environment. This week a co-worker of mine (Kathy ) wrote a great blog on the Top 10 Things to do During Spring Break. She talks about everything from volunteering to informational interviewing to buying an interview suit. Definately check it out. Besides my homework, my spring break will be filled with family time and planning my summer out in Oregon. I think it will be fun.

Before I forget, I’ve been working on adding features to my blog. I recently added an area for you to subscribe to the blog. Please do! I greatly appreciate everyone reading it!

Happy Spring Break!