Working on a 12-month contract

Hey everyone. Even though I've worked in Student Affairs for six years, this fall feels different because it's the first time that I've been working through a 12-month contract. When I was at the Missouri Academy, my contract was 10.5 months, which usually translated into having a summer roughly the same length as the students, with a couple weeks shaved off of each end. When I took on the role of running the international student transition program, it cut a little more into summer, but I still had a solid month that was definitively summer.

I'm not sure how to best describe it, but since I've been working all summer, the past three months have felt like one continuous curvy line, rather than line segments with a stretch break in the middle. The continuous line is curved in the analogy since there has been the ebb and flow that comes with students moving in/out, developing summer projects, and even getting new staff members trained in. I have had a couple of summer outings, but even still, it felt like business as usual when I came back rather than starting everything fresh.

I've been thinking about this the past couple days because RAs have been coming back and commenting about how long it's been since they were on campus. My response has been that it hasn't felt like that long to me, but that's usually just a thought rolling around in my head. Even though I usually stayed in my on-campus apartment during the summers in Missouri, it just feels different. In a way, I feel like I can help get RAs back into housing mode since I haven't turned it off myself.

Anyway, that's my ramble for the day. I know tomorrow will be a long day, so I need to get plenty of rest tonight (and hope I yank myself out of bed on time in the morning). Speaking of tomorrow, it will be Cupcake Day, National Thrift Shop Day, and the Meaning of "Is" Day. That last one will probably get very nitpicky quickly.

DFTBA