I have now officially had my first week off since the end of Orientation. My job as an SOC is over in employment terms, but will be continuous into the fall. To be perfectly honest, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into back in December 2010 with the SOC position, but now that it's over, I am really taking the time to process all that happened. February for an SOC is extremely busy, hard, and overwhelming. You are in interviews or reading applications pretty much every day, and you still have homework, clubs, jobs, and anything else you have going on...like Peer Advising duties. While the most stressful month, it's one of the best. Then you get to summer, you're sitting at a computer day-in and day-out. Hardly anyone is on campus, and you get bored real easily. Three months of work, turns into Peer Advisor Training and New Student Orientation. The moment August 19, 2011 rolled around, I was extremely excited. I was so pumped for the Peer Advisors to arrive I couldn't sleep the night before. I was also nervous of what the final product of Prep Week would look like, but more importantly, I was worried about how it would all be ending soon. The 8 days of prep week were probably the best 8 days out of my whole summer. I'm so proud of how well the peer advisors worked together, meshed together, and most of all supported and loved each other by the end of day two. I remember thinking back to all their pictures on the wall during selection and not really comprehending what it would all look like, but oh man, did they really show me. These peer advisors, were a product of the hard work myself and my staff put in. They were the product of the blood, sweat, and tears that all came before they got there. They worked hard, giving up a weeks worth of pay from jobs, leaving families early, and being disconnected for a week from anyone...all because they cared about the new students. It takes a lot to be a Peer Advisor. There's no financial reward, just pure satisfaction of knowing you are making a difference. They have no idea how they impacted my life. I went from not having a clue of what the next step would be after summer ended, to knowing exactly, without a doubt what I should be doing with my life. They gave me purpose and a sense of direction and proved to me that no matter the pay, at the end of the day, I loved every 16 hour day I put in with them. If you are a Peer Advisor from 2011, and you stumbled on my blog, thank you for making me realize what it is I should be doing with my life. Thank you for being so amazing, that I want nothing more than to go to grad school next year. If I ever get to work with students that are half of what you are, my job is exactly what I want it to be.
