The Freshman of 2008

It has been a long year. They say that the year after College is this big transition year into responsibility and adulthood. I decided to add getting married into the mix, so I must agree with this especially in my case. It was really hard for me to stay in the college town that I'd been living in for the past 4 years. Getting engaged made it a little easier, but even a year later I'm still not completely sold on the idea. I was lucky enough to land a job for the very University I had just graduated from. Living in Abilene and not being associated with ACU was really weird for the brief time I worked under another employer. My first 'real' job was to be an Admissions Counselor. I thought it would be all fun and games at first, but I had a rude awakening that things were going to get serious fast.

The last year has been up and down for me, I've had high points and very very low points. I feel like I am finally to a place of closure after the past year. My students are here and enrolled, and today is their first day of College. The idea of having to start over from scratch is really scary. After all, this year has been an uphill battle for me. I have never had to work so long to see the fruits of my labor. I'm the type of person that would rather work as hard as possible for a short amount of time than draw the work out over the long haul. With this job I got the best of both...work as hard as you can for the long haul. That's not to say that I'm not looking forward to next years class. I just know how long it will be between that first conversation and them being here. In the meantime, I look forward to watching this freshman class excel and succeed. Hopefully that will be a continual means of motivation for me. I will never forget the way it felt to walk in during opening ceremonies of Welcome Week and see all of the Freshman class together, and most of all to know that many of those students wouldn't be here without me. I finally feel refreshed and rewarded after a year of exhaustion.