Things are looking up!

The past two summers, I have had some pretty negative work environments and not the small, “dang the break room is out of coffee” experiences. To give some context in summer 2017, a seemingly ideal position for me as a counselor at a fitness camp for kids took a negative turn when the working conditions got so rough the director left, leaving an underprepared 19 year old me to fill in gaps as a new co-director. All of this inner camp turmoil occurred as a 18,000 acre wild burned on the desert horizon, nearly forcing a total evacuation of my camp. I bring this up because it has given me a cautiously optimistic view on any job I start. Although that counselor position once seemed ideal, I learned just how quickly things could go south without proper awareness. For me the position as a conference services (event planning) and housing support intern at the University of Delaware seemed to align perfectly with my interests: planning, creativity and working in higher education; yet, I still had to reflect on my past experiences to not be overly hopeful.

          The good news is week one has been worlds better than my past two years and I feel like a valuable contributor to a team (the work golf cart is an additional plus). I’ve had two significant projects so far where I have been able to utilize my creativity and had freedom to put my own vision into action The first was designing a large 12×12 foot bulletin board for visitors to our commons, which basically the hub for all summer camps that stay on the UD campus. I had a vision, which I drew out and wanted to execute to the best of my abilities. What I’ve learned over the years is that things don’t always turn out exactly as you expect, but it is worth it to keep going because you may even like the end result better than your original vision, which is exactly what happen as I began executing my work. Though creating the board was a lot of work, the small details are what sets good work apart from great work and something I take a lot of pride in, even though others may not know the full extent of the work behind the final product.

       My second creative task was staging two dorm rooms for an Alumni weekend celebration that honors two very old, very large dorm buildings before they get destroyed. While I was given the materials for the staging, it was fun to put my own spin on the rooms based on what they had given me. I was also reminded of just how much I enjoy physical labor and carpentry work, it’s definitely a fun release from the day to day happenings of a desk job. Speaking of Alumni weekend, it’s definitely going to be hectic with 5,000 former Blue Hens rolling in for some shenanigans and an open bar, but there is no better way to get great event planning experience than to get exposure to one of campus’ biggest weekends of the year in my first week of work!