My Life Away From the Office

It’s been a while since I have posted a blog. So here is just a quick rundown of how March went down:

Week 1: I spent it in South Texas visiting my family for my cousin’s 15th birthday party. Where I come from, these parties are huge and usually start off with an over the top dance sequence. The celebrated honoree is the center of attention while her teenage friends dance around her in lockstep. For one reason or another, I assumed the role of choreographer at the very last minute. My aunt said, “Jessica, you have to do it, they are all out of synch.” I agreed to do it and found the task to be quite easy. I smiled to myself after realizing that my job has made me very good at directing a large group of teenagers without coming off as overbearing or dictatorial.

Week 2: I spent it off-site working a retreat for high school Prep for Prep students called Aspects of Leadership. The Aspects curriculum is designed to make students critically analyze the different aspects of leadership by reading historical documents and participating in various case studies. It was great to see students explore the same curriculum that I many moons ago also studied when I participated in another program also started up by Prep’s founder.

Week 3: I spent it up and down the East Coast visiting colleges with the Prep for Prep high school juniors. I was on a bus with another counselor and 25 other students as we made pit stops at UPenn, Harvard, Georgetown, and Swarthmore. We braced the elements, dealt with tight parking situations, and saw cheesy movies on the bus. Yet, it was a great experience to see the students become increasingly excited about their college prospects.

Week 4: I spent it chaperoning an Aspects retreat again. It was nice to be back in the city and to have the chance to interact with high school students as opposed to middle school students.

As this timeline illustrates, March was just a crazy month. I am excited to finally be in the office and to have the opportunity to meet with my assigned students, some of which I have not seen since the beginning of February. When they ask me, “Where have you been the last couple of weeks?,” I just give them a quick rundown of my life away from the office.