The Past 7 Days

As promised, I am posting. Notice the lack of deadline, teehee.

Acronyms:
FLs - Flatlanders
A group of people not acquainted with the lifestyles of the western United States (excluding Pacific states and most of Texas)
NACURH - National Association of College and University Residence Halls
The organization of which student governments across the nation are members
GLACURH - Great Lakes Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls
The region of NACURH to which IU belongs
RHA - Residence Halls Association
A commonly used title for an individual student government

Wednesday of last week, I got up early and my dad took me to the airport. Met up with the rest of the IU delegation for NACURH, they are cool people. The plane ride to Phoenix was interesting. Southwest Airlines has open seating, and since we all had cheap tickets we were the last to board. I sat between another kid traveling alone and a father whose family was in the adjacent row. We were politely silent.

After the plane ride, the FLs in the delegation complained about the turbulence. It...uh...wasn't that bad. Try trans-Atlantic, or Minneapolis - Indy through a storm. Ah ha.

Once we landed, we picked up the rental car (we betta be rollin' in a expedition or some shit, I ain't cruisin' in no minivan). It was an 8 passenger Ford Expedition (good call, Tabs) with enough room for our luggage.

Our hotel was in Scottsdale, which is a suburb of Phoenix. The FLs were impressed by the mountains. They weren't mountains, they were hills. The delegation now knows the difference. :-)

We did some shopping (Tabitha stimulated the desert economy) and did the pool thing. The bartenders didn't seem to notice that some of us were underage, and all of them offered us drinks at one point or another. Maybe another day, you trendy and flirtatious blondes. Next was boring stuff, stuff that bored me, and stuff that I didn't find particularly interesting. We'll skip to the conference.

As we were standing in line, we were singing/rapping along to Emery's iPhone. The other delegations were jealous; we didn't judge them for it. Soulja Boy came on and I was the only person who did the dance (go white boy, go white boy!). The rooms weren't as nice as IU's. They were most similar to Read, except with carpet and really old/small suite-style bathrooms.

Here goes the good stuff, for those of you suffering through my introduction.

The older I get, the more it seems easier to not care about people's names, and it seemed that a lot of the people there shared a similar sentiment. Before the first day was over, we were reduced to the school we represented within GLACURH. Introductions hardly seemed worth the effort when there were around 1500(?) students from across the country. I appreciate that distinction. It makes the real introductions meaningful and memorable, rather than forcing introductions that are rushed and quickly forgotten. This distinction also opened the door wide open for random acts of kindness. Because it didn't matter that names weren't exchanged, I noticed it was easy for myself and others to treat everyone nicely, to automatically assume cordiality or familiarity. Learn this, readers: people are people. The people you know are the same as the people you don't.

The other big piece of personal development I took from the conference relates to my preference of station. As I got familiar with NACURH as an organization and looked at its basic functions, I caught myself resenting it. I thought, here is an organization that exists solely to reward and recognize its more outstanding members. Sure, it allows for the exchange of ideas between member RHAs, but who are they to judge our efforts? I prefer the hands-on experience, directly implementing programs, directly advising student representatives. I don't need to be nationally recognized for something I did for 1200 students in RHA. My recognition comes from my peers. NACURH's recognition comes only from the member regions and schools that think it's important to be nationally recognized. The only thing I can appreciate is the exposure to other RHAs' ideas. If people are proud of their work, let them be recognized by their peers. Make a damn website to exchange that kind of info.

The drive back to Phoenix and the flight back to Indy were both uneventful. However, I imagine that the elderly gentlemen sitting on either side of me appreciated the gory and profane comic book I was reading. It's called Preacher. I love it, check it out.

I just got done with day 4 of my internship. Started last week before the trip to Arizona. The people are interesting enough to distract me from the lack of intrigue in my work. Here's a summary of my work at the Indiana State Library

Project 1 - Catalogue 15 years of political newsletters by Brian Howey
Status - Complete
Notes - Found some pornographic material that Mr. Howey must have printed out and forgotten in his binder.

Project 2 - Take inventory and re-label digital copies of County Histories
Status - In progress
Notes - This is my favorite so far, really. I'm quick and organized.

Project 3 - Obtain, microfilm, and digitize ~9 County Registers of Negroes and Mulattoes
Status - In progress
Notes - Indianapolis is hosting the first ever national African American genealogical conference. A person referred to as Mulatto is one who would be known as bi-racial today. Most of these registers date back to around 1853 - 1860.

Librarians seem to lack a sense of urgency. I really enjoy working, no matter the job. I need to keep an eye on the manager side of my personality, it's sharper than I intend.



Hopefully you've enjoyed some or most of this. I'm going to make an effort to blog more frequently so I can include more reflection.

Your comments are encouraged, or else I wouldn't be making this public. Also keep in mind that I'm no stranger to criticism or public humiliation.

-Arec