Setting the Tone -- A Glimpse Into the Past, Pt. II

So, I last left you with my positions as a Peer Advisor and Student Leadership & Programs intern at CLU. Prior to walking into my senior year, I was an assistant manage for Vector Marketing, selling Cutco Cutlery. I had been with them for the previous two years and was well on my way into a management position post-graduation. As I entered Peer Advisor training and the fall semester I was also moving forward with the idea of managing my own office post-graduation, until I figured out the graduate school thing. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. I was excited about my management opportunity all the way until after I went on the company trip to Niagra Falls. The following weekend was the First-Year Retreat, a program designed to help first-year students find their niche at CLU. This was something I planned with KP and another intern that I was extremely excited about. This also ended up being the beginning of the hardest month of my life. While attending the first-year retreat I became completely unsure about what I wanted. I wanted to attend grad school, I wanted to go into student affairs but I also felt obligated to management opportunity. I didn't know what to do. Needless to say, I wasn't the most active during the retreat because of the emotional roller coaster I was on.

The end of November was nearing and I rushed to sign up for the GRE, began picking schools to apply to extremely fast...and then applications for Student Orientation Coordinator (SOC) came out. Suddenly, I was going back and forth on grad school, SOC, management opportunity, and the study abroad field. I finally spoke with an alum of CLU who was my student body president and was in her first year of the SAHE program at Colorado State University. She encouraged me to really think about what I wanted, and that it was okay to not go to grad school yet and figure it out. She also encouraged me to apply for the SOC position as it would give me great insight into the field if I was selected. Low and behold, I applied, not expecting to get the position as a graduating senior but thought I would just go for the experience. I knew I had to go into the interview with a decision on grad school, so I decided the minute I went into my interview that I was not attending grad school. I didn't want any possibility of hurting my chances at getting the position because of my uncertainty. I interviewed, in what I thought was my worst interview other, later I found out it was apparently my best. In the end, I was selected as SOC with two others, and suddenly all my stress went away. I backed down from my opportunity with Vector Marketing & Cutco, and moved forward with my life. Still unsure about where graduate school would come into my life, I began the spring semester of my senior year, excited and ready to take on this position. 

A-Ram