So I interviewed for one of the Coords positions (Orientation Program Coordinator aka the student coordinators in charge of planning a huge part of the Orientation experience, like training all the other leaders) yesterday. The Coords for next Orientation have an especially big task ahead of them because our entire Orientation program is being reworked and overhauled.

And you know what? I feel pretty good about it.

I had some other leaders over last night and they helped me do a practice interview. And it really went well! They asked really helped me work through answers to potential questions and made me notice potential interview pitfalls (they asked harder questions than the ones I got this morning, haha). It also helped get me into the right mindset for an interview.

And honestly, the only thing I think that wasn’t ideal this morning was starting at 8AM. Yeah I know, 8AM interview, I was not excited.

Even facing down 7 interviewers (4 pro staff and 3 past coordinators) wasn’t that bad! Well, I did know everyone in that room, so that might have helped.

But even though I think everything ran smoothly, I still wish I had said more. I answered the best I could at the time, but now that I’ve had some time to think (and look at my notes from my practice interview), I have a bit more to say.

So, here are just some of my updated answers:

What is your greatest weakness?

I think my greatest weakness is letting go and practice good self care habits. When I work on a project and plan an event, I always find myself getting too into the work. I completely lose myself in my work. You may think it’s great to love what you do and be hardworking, but there is a limit. At a certain point, your health, both physically and mentally, are affected. Trust me, I’ve been there.

And I think that I really just need to work on letting go and being able to take a step back, even if it’s just to take a breath. Sometimes that all you need.

But I think that being on the Coord team would help me work on that immensely. The four of us, undertaking this monumental task together, we’re gonna need to be each other’s support systems. It’ll be an amazing environment to help me work on myself while helping others.

What is your vision for Orientation?

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, actually. People struggle with change and generally dislike it, especially when it’s to something so many love like Orientation. I mean, look at how many amazing leaders we have every year (around 100)! But I really want to frame this new Orientation as an adventure to help leaders, both new and returning, transition into this new program.

This new orientation will be a journey. We’re entering the unknown, exploring uncharted territory. Yeah it’s gonna be scary, and yeah it’s gonna be tough. But you know what? We’ll be together. A team, a community, a family.

Not everything will go according to plan, and that’s fine. That’s what adventure is about, figuring out what does and does not work, exploring new things whenever you can.

This is gonna be an incredible adventure and I’m just so excited, whether it is once again as a leader or as a Coord.

Why do you want to be a Coord?

I live, breathe and bleed Orientation. This program has honestly been life changing for me. From the very second I finished my first Orientation as a leader last year, I was counting down the days until this year’s Orientation.

One of the main themes of Orientation is: Challenge, Comfort, Connect. Challenge you to push yourself and try new things. Comfort you as are introduced to hundred new things at once, which can be overwhelming. And Connect you to some amazing people.

So a big thing I took away from that first Orientation was how to be vulnerable and how to be okay with it. By day two of training, I was spilling my guts out to people I had known for less than 48 hours. I learned how to be very real with myself and others and be perfectly comfortable with it. And that was really life-changing.

It’s something that I’ve applied into my life a lot. Be it with close friends or strangers I’ve barely met, I’m a lot more true to myself. I’m happier. And that’s thanks to this incredible program. It challenged me, comforted me and connected me.

And I just wanna give back and help facilitate life-changing experiences for other people as well.

I find out Tuesday (the 21st) whether I got the job.

But you know what? I think I’m gonna be happy whether or not I get it. Because I know I gave it my all and tried my best. I don’t think I could’ve done it any better. And I’m perfectly happy being a regular leader again.

Also, I’m house sitting over Thanksgiving and there is a 12 year old dog and 17 year old cat. So that’s pretty awesome.

Thank you to Chloe, Laura, Kat and Matt for practice interviewing me. I seriously can’t thank you guys enough.

So I just finished Season 4, Episode 6 of Parks and Recreation. In it, characters behave like it is the end of the world and start trying to live without regrets, party hard, finish bucket lists or other things. What really struck me about this episode was when, toward the end ot the episode, a character asks another what they would do if it was the end of the world. And that got me thinking.

What would I do?

Some people would party till the end and engage in rampant debauchery. Others would spend their last moments surrounded by friends and family. Or maybe they’d spend their last hours trying to live their lives as much as possible. But personally, I wouldn’t do any of those things.

First, I think I’d say my goodbyes to friends and family. For some people, it’d be a short text, for others, it’d be a long phone call. I think this would be the hardest part. I’ve personally  always had trouble saying goodbye. It’s just hard for me to deal with important people in my life leaving it. Thankfully, any “goodbye” I’ve said has always been paired with a “see you later” or “until next time”. But, knowing that this would be the last contact I’d ever have with them, it’d be difficult to say everything I wanted to say.

Once that’s done, I’d grab some snacks and drinks and hop in my car and drive someplace with a nice view. Maybe it could be a view of whatever city I’m in or just somewhere out in the woods. But the key is the view. I want to be looking at something nice when everything ends.

After finding a nice place, I’d turn on some music, climb onto the roof of the car and take in the view. From there, I’d just wait it out till the end. Nothing big, nothing glamorous. Maybe I’ll have some other people there. Maybe not.

What would you do if the world was about to end?

One of the main reasons I joined Beta was because of one person, Ray. Ray is an alumni, having graduated the semester that I joined. He ended up as my Great Grandbig (my big’s big’s big) and we made a whole ton of good memories in that one semester we had together. Easily one of the best parts of joining.

So I realized something the other day. Our current new members never met Ray or any of the other members from the class of 2016. And that’s a kinda weird thought. Beta as it currently is is not the house that I joined. The Seniors graduated, we got a whole bunch of new members and the house culture has changed a lot.

And in a few days, it’s all going to change again when the current Seniors graduate. And then we’ll get new members. Then those members won’t know who the members from the class of 2017 were. And that’s a pretty weird thought too.

And eventually (but thankfully not soon), I’ll be graduating. Then, Beta will be a completely different house than the one I joined. And people like Ray will be a long distant memory.

And not long after that, I’ll be just a memory too. This just makes me think. What will be the legacy I leave? Will I make a big enough impact that Betas 5 or 10 years after I graduate know who I am? Or will I be forgotten and fade into the background like countless alumni unfortunately have? It’s more than likely the latter, but I can’t help but wonder.

Damn. I really need to be studying for my last final instead of getting philosophical.

The best thing about Spring Break is nothing. Absolutely nothing.

There’s nothing to worry or stress about. Nothing to do. Nothing.

It’s an incredible feeling after a crazy Spring semester so far. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have nothing to do.

The last time I think I took a walk through campus was probably not long after moving in Freshman year. A floormate and I just explored campus and got to know it better before everyone else got there.

But since then, I haven’t really explored. I’ve just been too caught up with life and busy with other things. But today, I had nothing to do. No tests to prepare for, no midterms or papers, nothing.

So I decided to do what I haven’t done in so long and take a walk. I texted one of my friends and we met up by the Donor’s Circle in front of Trimble with my camera. And then we just started walking.

We started at the Donor’s Circle and walked to the President’s Woods. Then we walked in between Thompson and Schneebeck before heading over to Wyatt. From there, we walked past the track meet towards the Fieldhouse. We talked down the street from there and turned onto Theme Row, finishing our stroll through campus at the SUB.

A tree in the President’s Woods

The side of Thompson

Ran across this at Wyatt

Ran into Nathan on his way out of the gym. The face only a mother could love.

Looking down Theme Row

Looking at Thomas Hall from Seward

Life is tough right now. Next week is midterms. For some, graduation is coming and the real world is on the horizon. For others, there are still a few years left here. For our country, well, I’m just not gonna comment on that.

Anyway, I feel like I need to inject some positivity into our world. So here are some wholesome memes:

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My fraternity is actually planning on doing something like this. It’s gonna be pretty freaking awesome.

AWWWWWWW

Same though

To all the seniors out there

I hope everyone reading this enjoyed it and their day was made a little brighter. For more wholesome memes, check out https://www.reddit.com/r/wholesomememes/

Every fraternity talks about brotherhood.

“We have such a strong brotherhood.”

“Brotherhood is our top priority.”

But what is brotherhood? Why does it matter? Why do we always talk about it?

Brotherhood is the glue the binds the house together. It’s what drives us support each other in all of our activities outside the house. It’s what makes it okay to express ourselves. It’s what makes memories. It’s what is behind every smile. It’s what makes lifelong friends. It’s what makes brothers.

In my fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, brotherhood is something we hold above many things. The bond I have with my brothers is so strong that I know it will last long after we all graduate and part ways.

It’s hard to talk about brotherhood. Not because it’s a difficult topic, but because you don’t talk about brotherhood, you show it. Sometimes, brotherhood is more like a feeling than some type of display.

It’s what we feel when we are having a bad day and talk about it with one of our brothers. We talk for hours and hours about everything and anything, no matter the time of day.

It’s what we feel when we spend a weekend night playing video games and watching weird Youtube videos.

It’s what we feel when we just hop in the car and go for a drive for a little while, just quietly enjoying each other’s presence.

It’s what we feel when we’re all watching a movie and heckling the plot and characters.

It’s… brotherhood.

A few months ago, back in the summer, I had a mid-life crisis. I was at a relative’s house for a barbecue and my aunt asked me how old I was turning this year.

“I’m turning nine- oh.” My eyes widened with the sudden realization that I wasn’t turning 19. I was turning 20. I had a dumbfounded look on my face, so my aunt starting laughing and left me to deal with my internal crisis on my own.

I wasn’t going to be a teenager anymore. I was going to be an adult. I was going to be old. Panic started to set in as I started reaching out to different people, explaining what happened and what I was feeling. I didn’t want to grow up.

Growing up means more responsibilities. It means more stress. It means swallowing my pride acting like an adult. It means less free time. It means the fun is over. It means a dark and bleak future of eternal suffering.

Which brings me to today. My birthday. My 20th birthday. And… it’s not as bad as I thought.

Sure, I have a bunch more responsibilities. But I’m actually having a lot of fun. I love planning, so planning out all the Programming events for next semester for Beta and IFC is a ton of fun. I have a dozen other non-academic things I need to attend to before I leave. But I’m enjoying myself.

And I’m definitely not acting my age. If you ask anyone that knows me, I’m one of the most obnoxious and immature people around. You can always count on me to say something inappropriate at the worst possible time.

The fun never really ended. Things changed, but I never stopped having fun. I’ve made so many new friends and even more memories. The future is now and it’s not that dark and bleak.

Maybe growing up isn’t as bad as I thought.

So I recently moved into a new room because we have some new guys moving into Beta so we had to shift some people around in order to make accommodations. I love my room. It’s the perfect size. Small enough to be cozy, but big enough to fit a couple people that want to hang out. It’s also right near the bathroom and almost equidistant from our front and back doors. But there’s one thing.

The heater doesn’t work.

Well technically it does work, just not very well. It’s really finicky, only turning on if the knob is turned to a very precise location. And when it does turn on, it shuts off after about 5 minutes (which isn’t nearly enough time to heat up a room!).

I already talked to my GHC (Greek House Coordinator, the RA for Greek Houses) and he filed a work order a few days ago. Facilities did come and check it and another room’s heater out and fixed both. But whenever I want to operate it, it takes 6 or 7 tries to get it on.

Given the recent cold weather and a California body that isn’t used to much below 50 degrees, I kind of need a heater. Or else I might turn into a Kevin-sicle during finals. Actually, that sounds like a better alternative to finals.

So I just got back from off-roading for the the first time. It was pretty freaking awesome.

I went off-roading with two of my friends, Mitch and Matt. Mitch had mentioned they were going off-roading last night and invited me to come along.

Driving down the highway with the roof off.

We started the trip with the roof down. This lasted a good 10 minutes before we realized it was freezing and was about to rain. But, I was able to get a good Snapchat of us crossing the Narrows bridge before we put the roof back up.

Eventually, we got to the trailhead. It was absolutely beautiful. It was so green with a classic Washington overcast. And we were about go roaring through it in Mitch’s Wrangler.

A sign at the trailhead

Mitch’s Jeep Wrangler

We spent a good amount of time traversing the woods, hitting every single bump along the way. Mitch commented “This feels a lot like Tacoma roads, just prettier.” I mean, he wasn’t wrong.

Probably should not have been standing here as the car was going down a slope…

After some time in the woods, we came across a massive muddy area to drive around in. Mitch drove through a couple puddles before allowing me to take the driver’s seat. Mitch encouraged me to drive through the biggest puddle in the area, while Matt was just fearing for his life. Mitch just instructed me to floor it so we wouldn’t get stuck.

Well as it turns out, that puddle was pretty deep. It was deep enough that the water almost came up over the hood. I basically almost turned Mitch’s Jeep into a boat. We were all freaking out. Thankfully, I never took my foot off of the gas, so we managed to make it out.

When we emerged from the water, steam vented from the engine, while streams of water flowed down the sides of the car. For a couple of minutes, we couldn’t stop talking about how awesome that was. Mitch, then let me drive around some more while he took some awesome slo-mo videos.

TREES

After some more driving, we parked on the side of a hill and dropped the roof. We climbed on top of the roll cage and just took in the sight before us. It was green as far as the eye could see. Just rows and rows of the most beautiful trees I’ve ever seen. We all sat there for a while, listening to music and enjoying the forest around us. I can’t even begin to describe how perfect it was. All I can say is that we all agreed it was one of the top 5 moments of our lives.

Friends, music, nature and a Jeep. Absolute perfection.

Trees as far as the eye could see.

Then the rain started to come down. After some struggling to get the roof back up, we all climbed into the car. Then we realized we didn’t know where we were.