I have now done my first official week acting as a dean to a dorm full of kids. There are close to 50 kids in the dorm, most of them girls. So far, I'm loving it. Sunday was move in day. Let's just say it was a very overwhelming day. I met so many people, both students and parents and I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to get anyone's name straight. My day consisted of checking people in, dealing with roommates (everyone has a roommate, which is a blessing for the school but not necessarily for some of the students), meeting parents, trying not be overwhelmed, smiling, and trying to remember all the names people were throwing at me. Students started trickling in around 10am and didn't stop until around 8pm that night.
Now I make that day sound very traumatic, but in all actuality it wasn't really that bad. I was just really blown away by the number of people in the dorm. My graduating class was 8 people. My high school had about 43 kids in it when I attended. So the fact that there are over that many kids in just the dorm is astonishing to me. It really was a great day though.
Monday, I innocently volunteered to help the guy's assistant dean open the dorm at 6:30am. What was supposed to be a 9 hour shift turned into an 18 hour shift. The only thing I remember from that day was meeting one of the "cowboys" at 6:30am when I was trying to figure out how to use the little allen wrench thingy to open the front doors. He walked in and I immediately stopped trying to open the doors and returned to the office to heal my wounded pride and regroup to do something I knew how to do. I remember sitting there thinking to myself, "This guy is nuts! I'm not going to make conversation with him. It's way too early in the morning for things like civility!" The rest of the day was a complete blur.
Tuesday, I woke up later than Monday which was good. I ate breakfast packed my gear and jumped on the bus to head up to Camp Ida-Haven. We were up there until Thursday. While we were there we did the SA Handshake which made the name learning thing even more intimidating. Thankfully I'm getting the hang of it now. We did activities like class scramble and a brush pile-up competition. (We still don't know who won that.) I had a blast hanging out and getting to know the kids. Went swimming with some of the senior girls, attempted to play volleyball, did a two-high with one of the RA's, ate 8 marshmallows and was on a super duper sugar high, and those are just a few of the highlights.
After we got back on Thursday afternoon I don't remember what I did. But Friday I definitely remember. (I would hope I remembered at least that far back.) On Friday, I was on duty from 3pm until the usual 11 or 11:30. I was supposed to wait up for a new student coming from about 12 hours away. At 5pm they said they were about 5 hours away; they must have been driving 30mph because they didn't get to GSA until 1:30 AM!!! I was so cranky that even though I had every right to be cranky, I felt bad. And then this kid wanted to talk to their family that brought them and I about lost is. Needless to say, I slept in on Sabbath morning. I skipped Sabbath School and got up just in time for church. I figured I should attend church since I was doing song service. After church and lunch I went back to bed and slept for another two and a half hours. I was very glad to have today (Sunday) off.
Today, despite the fact that it was my day off, I took two of the volleyball girls shopping for gear. Then came back to the dorm and wrote a letter on post-its; a proud moment for me. Then I joined a group of fabulous women and went to see "The Help." Turns out one of the ladies knew me when I was a little girl. She used to clean my family's house way back in the day. I was shocked. It was a great evening spent with amazing women and a good way to start a brand new week here at GSA. Here goes WEEK FOUR in Idaho! I can't believe its almost been a month. Oh and I have a pet fish named Otis. k bye
-Ashley
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