General Life Updates and Conclusions

The last four-ish weeks have been crazy...but oh so grand.
Mid-May I flew back from CA for a bit of a break and had one of the best vacations ever. I was able to spend so much quality time with so many lovely people that I so dearly missed. From walks and talks in Orange City for a weekend, road tripping to Michigan with a few stops on the way, some quality time on the Van Eck acreage with a lot of Buller involvement, and watching one of my darling friends get married, I was constantly fulfilled and overflowing with joy and love.
The time spent with all these people in all these places has shown me some wisdom:
-I have great friends. Seriously...the best. I always knew it but didn't appreciate the depth until now
-Even with great established friends, new ones are still fun to discover
-Michigan may be my preferred place of settlement...Grand Rapids, specifically. It is such a fun and unique city focused on local businesses and great coffee
-I hope neither my family nor the Buller's ever move
-Time is precious
-People are gems

Needless to say, when I flew back to CA last week I was a bit sad; as far as I remember this is the first time that I have been sad to leave. Not to say that I always yearn to leave, but I am usually so excited for the new beginning that I am ready. Also, on a side note, my suitcase weighed 62 pounds. I'm still confused.

Lucky for me, I have had an enjoyable first few days in CA. For those of you who do not know, I am a judicial intern for the summer at the University of California, Riverside. Though the position is still hard to describe, discipline of the social aspect on a college campus about sums it up. The last couple days of work I have spent hours reading hundreds of pages of manuals, general sanctions, and things of the like. Today I spent a large amount of time reading up on court cases involving sexual assault and Title IX...which is quite interesting. I am excited to continue this process of learning as well as begin creating ideas for projects that I can accomplish this summer.

For those of you confused about why I am doing an internship about judicial affairs/conduct, I will catch you all up.
1. I came to this program with the sole intention of working in residence life after graduation. That still holds true.
2. In one of my first classes a past graduate (I think) came and spoke to our class about judicial affairs and I was immediately attracted to the field.
3. Since I heard her speak I have held to the idea of transitioning from housing after (probably) many years and moving into conduct. As long as I'm sharing, after quite some time I hope to get my doctorate in something...literature would be quite great, and lead/teach study abroad immersion trips-- but the last one is just a big dream.

Also great about this internship are the other interns. There are 4 (including myself) who went through ACUHO-I and 1 who went through NODA. In normal people words...one intern is doing training for residence life (Quill, Michigan State), two are working in the LGBT center (Catherine, VA Tech & Paul, Rutgers), I am doing the judicial internship (obviously), and Tim is working with orientation (Indiana University). They are fantastic. The four (ACUHO-I) of us bonded quickly and have been able to explore and dream about summer plans. Saturday we went to the beach with members of my cohort and had a splendid time.

Something not so great is working 40 hours a week. No thank you. Especially sitting at a desk in front of a computer. Double no thank you. I have hope that the time will begin to change once I have learned all that I need to know to move on to stimulating projects.

To close with a positive, I have been able to read quite a bit already. I have gone through a couple of books and spent hours tonight dreaming on amazon and filling up my shopping cart with prospective titles. Mmmhmmyes.

Suggested Goodness:
X-Men (still in theaters)
City and Colour
Kate Nash (be advised, mature* persons only)
Josh Ritter
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros


*Not necessarily, but open...take it as you wish, she's not for everyone