Back to School (Already?)

Well, working in higher education, I never left for the summer. However, I still love this time and catch the back to school bug every year. New textbooks are flooding our office. I meet new students every day. My friends are getting ready to go back to or start graduate school and I will live vicariously through their continued studies. I see little kids with the cutest backpacks boarding buses with their parents. My caffeine intake and stress levels have also increased significantly as this is our busiest time of year....the time of year when every day, you just pray for it to be October. But still....I love it.

Some of the team the morning of orientation to welcome new students!
(At least the ones who got the green, black, and white coordinating memo.)

The craziness of the season is probably why I almost had a heart attack when I processed yesterday that it was indeed August 20th. That's late August...almost September. I also realized on the 15th that I have been at my current job for a year! Yes, it's true. I've been working 40s hours a week, every week for a year, in the same office. This being my first full-time, salaried position, I feel quite accomplished...like I should be able to cross "become an adult" off my to-do list.

However, reflecting on the past year, I think what really stands out to me is a realization that everything is a process. I am still learning every day and I never stop. Looking back, I have come really far, but looking forward, I still have a lot of work to do. There is no one moment I can point out where I can say "That's the moment I arrived as a professional."

Some things I've learned in the past year of full-time work:

• Self-care is VITAL. 
• So much of my graduate education in counseling emphasized self-care, but because working in higher education and academic advising is not counseling, I kind of slacked on the wellness routines I had developed. Let me tell you: without self-care (in any position), you will quickly burn out! If I'm being honest, my job is intense, stressful, and not unlike a 'front line' counseling position.
• How it's changing what I do: Simple things like making sure I sleep enough, drinking plenty of water, eating healthy, and exercising cannot be emphasized enough. Working out in the morning has changes my energy level for the entire day. I also KNOW that I need decompressing time for like an hour after work and a stressful commute to just be alone.
• I hope it goes without saying to use your lunch breaks and vacation days.
• Make friends!
• I'm always cautious when I first start a job about being too transparent or too casual too soon. I am the youngest in my office currently and want to be seen as a professional. However, being taken seriously should not be the only goal. I believe building relationships with colleagues should also be a priority. Not many people can understand exactly what your job is like, but your coworkers can and are a built-in support system!
• Have a routine.
• I am still working on building my routine a year into this job, but some of my current habits include keeping a binder of relevant articles in the field that I read, keeping an updated portfolio of projects and presentations, contributing to discussion in the field via social media, and taking breaks throughout the day so I'm not always sitting at a desk.
• Find fulfilling activities outside of work.
• There are good and bad work days. The good days mostly make the bad days worth it, but if you tie your self worth to a job, your sense of self will follow the roller coaster of the good and bad days. I have always found a lot of self-fulfillment from whatever I'm doing at the time, but it was always 5 million things. Whenever everything wasn't going perfectly at one job, I always had other things that I could look to. Working full-time, there is not a whole lot of time for outside activities, but it has beeen SO helpful for me to find things to do outside of just work and to actively work on defining my own self worth rather than basing it on what I'm doing at any given time.

When it comes down to it, I really do love what I do and am so grateful for that. There are definitely bad moments when I feel like little I do is actually helpful or significant, but then the times when I get a thank you email from a student or positive feedback from a colleague make it all worth it.

Bring on 2013-2014!