I am getting close to wrapping up all my papers and projects, just to start getting ready for final exams.
He said
After the last few weeks of midterms and papers, Emelia settled back into a more regular workflow for school and she has been doing such a great job of staying on top of her workload and classes. The last paper she had due, thankfully she revisited the requirements for the paper on Tuesday because she found out she need had messed up the word count needed which she thought was 500-750 words and actually was 750-1,000 words! Tuesday night she had to work, so it meant that after Wednesday’s Cheer practice, she had to come home to rework the paper to meet the word count requirement and get that done and submitted by midnight. She got it done, but it definitely was not a fun surprise.
For me this week, I crossed a significant cycling milestone more than a month and a week early! Last year I had set a goal of cycling 10,000km and when I easily hit it, a friend challenged me to set my goal for this year at 12,000km which I did. It seemed like a lot at the time but once it was broken down into a daily goal of 33km needed it seemed very easy to hit. And in the end, given that there are many rides I do though the year that were easily double that, I decided I would try to make it happen. But, I would be lying to you if I said that I thought I was going to have it done this early. I assumed it would be at most arrived at maybe a week or two early. Friday this week, with my ride, I crossed over that 12,000km line and checked off a significant milestone with a deep sense of pride. Next year I am not looking to increase it as 1,000km a month and 12,000km on the year is a nice maintainable number.
This week for work the focus will be on getting ready for the super bowl of retail that is Black Friday. Like it or not the biggest days for retail is the shopping down around the US Thanksgiving and Black Friday Sales. It is easily our business shopping days of the entire year and essentially the kick off to the holiday season of shopping. While it can be very busy and challenging, it is also fun because the hours fly by and before we know it, it is Christmas. But it sure will bring some very busy and challenging days too.
She said
The last few weeks for me has been insane at work. The third week of each term is always a lot of work for my division with events around campus. Last weekend it was Fall Open House. We had record numbers of students with their families coming to campus. The feedback from attendees and staff has been overwhelmingly positive. This was my first Open House at King’s and it was a blast.
With an edited weekend last weekend I went into this weekend for another one. One of the bigger events I chair is the Student Awards ceremony. I organize the event from start to finish, contact all the award winners, organize with our foundations team to connect with donors, organize all the speeches, AV, food, flowers, certificates… everything. It was a lot of work but today it was all worth it, it went off without a hitch. The students, parents and donors were all happy. This is hands-down the reason I love the change in career was for days like today. In my old role I did not have the opportunity to be so connected with students. And that is what working at a university is all about. I had the perfect vantage point today, I was able to see the faces of the students and their parents, seeing all their hard work pay off and be recognized. Today we celebrated 187 awards to 147 students. Approximately 75 students came today in person with their family and friends. It was a very meaningful event. Later this week I shift gears to teaching awards where we celebrate two incredible professors that have gone above and beyond to make that special connection with their students.
Along with all of that we are still here supporting Emelia and her schedule. She is balancing so much and somehow has kept it all in place. Her grades are strong, she is thriving in school, she is spending time with her friends and in the middle of that is working so hard at cheer (oh and two jobs). Cheer has been a rougher go this season. Moving up multiple levels and being on a worlds team has put on that extra layer of pressure. The girls are working so hard with another competition coming up fast. They only have a few practices left to bring things together before their first really high pressure competion. The first weekend of December is Cheer for the Cure, this is their first World’s bid competition. They are not worrying about a bid this early in the season, those always go to the top teams in Canada but this is the first time they will be competing on the same floor with Canada’s best teams. This competition is big, competitive and higher pressure. I know after how rough their run was at Fall Classic they are really putting a lot of pressure on themselves to really step it up. They are determined, working so hard and we are proud no matter what.