proud

Tonight was ASU's Second Annual Pitchfork Awards where our students, faculty, staff, athletes, programs, and innovations are recognized Grammy-style on the Downtown Phoenix Campus. To be completely honest, I wasn't thrilled about going to the event, but a lot of my students and their organizations were nominated and I was excited about supporting them. 

My Hall Council was nominated for their program "PaRHAnormal Activity" they put on in October. Tonight, I got to watch my President and Programmer go up on stage and accept an award for all of the hard work, time, passion, and tears they put into one program. I've seen how amazing they are all year-- so I was bubbling over with pride when ASU got to see just how incredible they are. 

Even though I've watched them put together what I would say are some of RHA's best programs (potentially some of ASU's best programs) all year, I know that "PaRHAnormal Activity" is the program the program that really proved this Council. 

I remember being so proud of my hall council after this event. It seemed like nothing was going right. I remember meeting with them as the walls of the haunted house sat in piles on the grass mere hours before the event started when drill after drill failed. I remember coming up with some half-assed motivational encouragement about how it would be a great event no matter what happened and secretly hoping and praying that everything turned out because I knew how invested they all were. I remember leaving my last meeting of the day and walking to check their progress and seeing the entire haunted house put up and ready. When drills had failed they'd turned to the teamwork of using hammers to secure all the walls. 

The program ended up being flawlessly executed. Clean-up was handled with the same team effort as set-up had been. I remember looking at my first year Hall Council members differently after that event. They'd always had a great pride for Hassa, but they were truly a team after that. I think that's when I realized how much I love advising, but more importantly how much i loved that group of students. I watched them struggle with the chance of failure very likely and turned everything around to make something incredible for our community.

So, tonight from the balcony seats I got to watch as two of the students who are constant reminders of "why I do this" stood on stage and accepted the kind of award I wish I could give them everyday. It was all I could do not to run down the stairs and hug them as they left the stage. I am so overwhelmingly proud of them tonight. But, I'm also a little sad because tonight I realized that as excited as I am for a new year of residents, a new CA staff, and the slower-paced Res Life summer, all of those things mean Hassa's over, too. There's only a few more weeks of Hall Council meetings left, only 2 more programs, only a handful of one-to-ones and then it's over. This has been one of those experiences I wish I could just live forever. 

I guess my advising experience this year has been kind of like Disneyland-- it's something I wanted and looked forward too, living it has been amazing, and when it's over I'll ache and miss it. Luckily, next year will bring a new opportunity and another chance to wear my advising ear hat.