Life is calling

The next few weeks will leave me little time to do anything. Breathing, eating, sleeping, unpacking, seeing sunshine? It's crazy to be back in the Residence Halls. BUT, as my dear friend said to me before I left Buffalo, "it's all about the package deal...free food and housing in Boston...you can't look at it like 'i'm back in the residence hall (eye roll)'." and he's right.

I have the opportunity to put that MS in College Student Personnel to good use, as a Resident Assistant in Warren Towers (Tower B) at Boston University. I have an amazing view of the city and a small view of the Charles River and a great ear full of the T, as it scoots along on the track, street level, below my window. I will have 42 freshmen/sophomore residents on my floor, boys and girls, and all of them in the age range of 18-20. It's going to be quite the adventure, but it's still a valuable experience. Even though i am going to feel like i am going to feel like i am going crazy for the next few weeks.

Training starts early each day and runs late into the night. But I think...I hope...that I have much to offer these students who will be my floor mates. I think back to my first RA at Canisius and she was amazing. She was in her mid twenties, like me in my late twenties, and we all adored her. I'm not asking to be adored, but she helped me to look at my college experience a lot differently. And I hope that I can do that for these students, if even in a very simple, small way. Even if it's only one student.

So the next week and a half will be devoted to training and trying to squeeze in sleep where I can. But it's all part of the journey...all part of the experience of growing and stretching. Before I left Buffalo, my friend and idol, Emmy, said to me: "Elizabeth, I guess it's the things that scare us the most, are the challenges we are supposed to be moving towards, it's how we know we're growing. It's good to be scared, it keeps us from getting TOO comfortable." And she's right. she is SO right.

So here i am in my cozy, single room with my XL twin bed. But it's all helping to make me a more fully alive person and in the end, isn't that what it's all about? Being alive? Taking every single possible thing that is around us? Exhausting ourselves with an eagerness for life because we will get all the sleep we need once we are passed on to the next life. So why not push a little harder and suck a little more life out of the air and experiences around us?

If nothing else, this experience is teaching me to not ever let age be a restrictive barrier. Most people rolled their eyes when I said that I'd be a 28 year old living in the residence hall, with people close to 10 years younger than me. And that's okay. It's their feelings, their opinions. But there could be worse things. And honestly, it wasn't such a horrible thing giving up my job. I was ready for this. I could feel it in my heart. And I feel so at peace with this new educational opportunity. Because my AGE; that shouldn't be the reason that i DON'T do this, school and residence life work. I look at my grammy who will be 100 in October and i want to live as long and as fully as she. And this is how...put your heart and soul into all you do, even when it isn't always fun or always easy. But in the end, I want to be able to say, at the end of my life, "I used everything you gave me GOD, I have nothing left!!"

So cheers to the start of that journey and all the quirks and bumps and joy and laughter that are bound to come with it. Cheers to the challenge of moving from my fabulous apartment to my tiny tiny res hall room. Cheers to a life without car insurance, a chapter of my life without a desk job and the biggest cheers of all to all the glorious unknown that still lies ahead of me.

I look back and try to remember who I was at 18 and it's almost impossible to see that girl. I am so different than her. I am eager to see who I am after 8 months of this experience. I am certain I am going to come out all the better for it. Just in case, I keep a stash of bubbles next to my laptop for the moments that seem overwhelmingly stressful. Because who isn't happy when they see bubbles????

So if ever you find yourself in a horrible day, pop in to your local drugstore and pick up a small 5oz bottle of bubbles. I can almost promise that they will make you smile (after you roll your eyes for feeling to childish).

Cheers to BUBBLES!!!