inside Rhodes

It’s been so long since I’ve posted!

Since I posted last, a lot has happened…my summer plans have turned out great, I’ve made tons of new friends, I am looking forward to school, and I am gearing up for a week of work.

First, let me update everyone on my fellowship. Working with ArtsMemphis and the Kinney program has been amazing. I can truly say that everything I have experienced has shaped what I think about the Arts and what I think about myself. I have been mostly working with educational stuff at ArtsMemphis: getting updates for the Student Ticket Subsidy program which allows students to go to Arts events at little to no cost. Additionally, I’ve been working with the annual event Conservation Through Art by helping everyone gear up for the big event this fall. As for Kinney, I have been mostly planning a big service plunge, Midtown Service Day. This event is geared towards freshman on the last Saturday in August…it’s a chance for service minded students to get their feet wet in the Midtown community. For more information visit the new and improved Kinney site (also my project) at www.kinneyprogram.com

As for the end of the summer, I will be doing some work for ArtsMemphis before school starts back. Before that though, we will give our final presentations for our fellowship and move our stuff to our rooms for the fall. For me, that’s Resident Assistant room 312 (I think) in Glassell. Yep,  I’ll be one of those dreaded RAs next year…If you don’t know what an RA is…you will pretty soon. A Resident Assistant is pretty much just that: an assistant to the residents of the campus. Usually, an RA is assigned a hallway and they look out for the general wellbeing of the hall, including the not-so-fun tasks of handing out Alcohol and Noise Violations and handing out hall-fines. On the cooler note though, RAs are also great people to turn to for advise, roommate issues, etc… Anyway, training for the RAs starts in the middle of August, so I’m starting to look forward to that as well as look forward to the start of school.

My feelings on school are getting mixed though. I really like having a 9-5 job and being around my friends and significant other. When school starts back, so does the hectic schedule of volunteer work, rehearsals, classes, homework, being a RA, and the mix of everything else I do at Rhodes. I’m really getting scared that starting this up again in August will make things stressful on my new relationship as well as my social life with my friends at Rhodes and U of M. Hopefully I can strike a good balance though and try to keep things less stressful than last semester. I’m only taking 3 four credit classes, so hopefully my academic stress will be down to a minimum.

Right now I’m at home getting ready to embark on a week long trip to Tennessee Tech. I’ll be home for tomorrow (Saturday) then I leave for Tech on Sunday…hopefully back in Memphis by next Saturday. I had mentioned my sig-other above…I’m really starting to miss being around that special someone that I’ve practically spent all of the past few weeks with. It’s going to be hard to get through a full week without having them around, but I think we will both survive.

I think that will be all for this post…

Have a good rest of the summer!