Don't Hate Me 'Cause I'm Colorblind...

I might be one of the ficklest bloggers on earth.  I am moving back to my old blog at http://craigberger784.blogspot.com.  Please join me there!

Current Location: Salem, Ohio
Current Mood: happy

While I went back and forth between Obama and Edwards for a bit this summer, a few months ago, I decided Edwards was still my favorite candidate and that I would support him getting the Democratic nomination for president. These two recent ads show how he's head and shoulders above the rest of the field -- including Obama.

"Trailer"


"Season"


There's an originality in both of these that I don't find with any other candidate. Comment on these below, if you wish.

Current Location: Apartment
Current Mood: impressed

These are the times when I find myself wishing for a Masters in Student Affairs / College Student Personnel. 

I believe that the social calendar of most college semesters goes something like this:

1.) First few weeks -- Everyone loves each other.  "How was your break?  Oh, that's awesome!  You look so good!  Well we'll definitely have to hang out sometime this semester!  Yeah, just give me a call!"

2.) Middle of the semester (a few months) -- People try to avoid the promises they made in the first few weeks.  "Oh man, I don't really want to hang out with them."  The college social network functions as normal.  Cliques have been formed and are being cemented into place.  In addition, people begin to identify their enemies.

3.) End of semester (last week or so) -- Everyone is on a caffeine-induced edge.  Sugar/salt consumption is through the roof.  People are just jumping at the bit to eliminate people from their conscience.  There's a boldness that comes in this stage that allows one to irresponsibly confront his/her enemies and not feel bad about it.

And yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are squarely in phase three.  This weekend, filled with incidents in which people seem to have no regard for each other's feelings, respect has gone by the wayside, and tears and scowls prevail over smiles and laughter, has been trying.  Sometimes I feel like I'm in a middle school.

So why do I wish I have a Masters now?  Well, when I am annoyed by something, I feel the need to understand it better.  I want to have a better understanding of why so and so writes vulgarities on markerboards.  I want some context.  Because, let me tell you, without any, it's starting to get kind of depressing.

I know that this is all the nature of the beast, and I probably won't even be this annoyed in a week from today when I'll be sitting in my family room, but I still thought I'd write some of this and give all of you an idea of what it's like to be a professional staff person on duty at a college over the last weekend of the semester.

Have a good week everyone!

Current Location: Apartment
Current Mood: annoyed

Well, here we go. Another long day.

But I think, just maybe, armed with a cup of coffee, having actually done my homework and prepared for the day, and listening to Jack's Mannequin, things may go smoothly.

Off to see if that's the case...

Have a good day everyone!

Current Location: Apartment
Current Mood: energetic
Current Music: "Holiday from Real," Jack's Mannequin

Pretty funny. For your enjoyment...

Current Location: Apartment

It's almost here.  "It" being the end of the semester.  And I can't wait.

Even though I'm working in a student-centered profession, for a student-centered university, at an even more student-centered campus within that university, and in a student-centered office at that campus, I have to confess that I'm about studented out.  Conflicts, discipline, and all the other administrative stuff are starting to take their toll.  Home is beginning to sound so good right now; Thanksgiving was a tease.

Oh well; enough griping I suppose.  Now to focus on what needs done:

1.) Make to-do list
2.) Christmas shopping
3.) Car oil check
4.) Groceries
5.) Pay credit card bill
6.) Organize a gift exchange
7.) Start reading a piece of fiction
8.) Let PSU know that the heat in one room of my apartment is actually cold air

Not too bad.  I'm sure that will expand soon.  Hopefully the fact that my list will be up for all of you to see will lead to me doing things so I can cross them off (my favorite part, as you can tell by numero uno).

Random music note:  "The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson is pretty sweet.

Alright, time do finish some RA evaluations (not on my personal to-do list, but my work version).  Peace out.

Current Location: Apartment
Current Mood: determined
Current Music: "The Way I Am," by Ingrid Michaelson

I thought I'd write before my super-long day at work.

It's amazing how a semester can be quiet, free of any discipline meetings, and without too much drama, and then BAM!  Students decide to be written up all at once, there's so much drama that this building is like a middle school, and I'm swimming in discipline files.  Today is possibly my busiest day ever, as far as discipline meetings go, as I go back-to-back for much of the day.  Which is why I'll be heading into work early to attempt to be proactive.

The snow has come.  I think we may have around a foot on the ground, and all it took was one night (Tuesday night).  Thankfully, it looks like a warming trend will be arriving; hopefully it gets rid of a lot of the white stuff.  It's not that I don't like this snow -- any snow before Christmas is welcome.  But I don't like it when it gets brown and it's been around for several days.  By the way -- any snow after Christmas is unacceptable.

I'm super-excited about our trip to Gulfport, Mississippi.  We have about 30 students going from Behrend; an improvement from the seven we had last year!  Altogether, it looks like the University will be sending approximately 90, so we'll be able to fill the camp we stayed in last year.  I'll keep you all posted.

Alright, well, I'm going to head to work to get something done before my long day today.  Have a good one!

Current Location: Apartment
Current Mood: calm

I ended up coming home a day earlier than I had planned.  It's been so nice to kick back and relax.  I will be going to Marietta tomorrow with my mom to pick my brother up from school; that should be pretty fun.  Luckily this year all the scheduling is going well, as I've been able to see different people and do different things on my terms.

I'm starting to realize that the older I grow, the less disruptive housework, especially here, seems.  I think that has to do with my penchant for helping others.  Now that I don't live here for much of the year, and with my parents growing older, the difference I make when helping them with these tasks is that much more apparent.  This makes it easier for me to dig in and do the work, not worrying about anything else.  It's actually kind of fun.

I realized I promised big news a while ago and didn't deliver.  Although I initially wanted to go to grad school next year, thinking two years at Behrend would be good enough for me to get my feet wet, I've changed my mind.  It turns out two years isn't much time.  I am in the middle of many exciting things at Behrend, and to give that up now, without seeing things through, well... I sure as heck wouldn't want that person in my graduate program.  I think to truly learn from experiences, you have to get some culminating moment.  I don't feel as if I've reached that point yet, where it's all come together for me.  I'm on this comfortable and rewarding upward trajectory right now; I have this incredible momentum that will carry me to the top of this mountain (and hopefully the other mountain -- grad school -- that's waiting for me when I finish scaling this one).  But I need one more year to really get all that I can from this climb.

Something to think about, thanks to You Already Know this Stuff:  Courage comes from the root word cour, which means "heart."  So when you're being courageous, you're actually following your heart.  Who'd have thought?

Alright, dinner time for the Bergers.  If I don't update tomorrow, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!  Eat a lot!

Current Location: Home
Current Mood: energetic

Hey everyone!

Tonight I spoke at a Behrend event called "Dinner for Six," a campus-wide Thanksgiving dinner.  A few weeks ago, I was asked to speak about my trip to Gulfport over spring break last year.  I thought I'd provide a copy of my remarks here for everyone to read.  I miss Mississippi and can't wait to go back this year!

Dinner for Six Talk – November 15, 2007

Good evening.  First, I want to thank Jill for asking me to say a few words here tonight.  When Kelly Shrout asked me to go on this trip last January, I could not have imagined having such a transformative experience that I’d be up here sharing it with all of you.  While I am the staff member giving life to these memories tonight, I want to make sure we commend Kelly Shrout for giving up her time to travel with not only these students, but several others on other service trips as well.  Kelly’s passion for helping others shines on these trips, and her hard work in organizing those enables others to develop and nurture their own commitment to serve.  Can we then acknowledge the importance of these experiences by giving Kelly a round of applause?  Thank you, Kelly.

When I was thinking about what I could discuss tonight, I remembered seeing a message on a sign in front of a church a few years ago that read, “The best things in life aren’t things.”  I later researched this quote and discovered that it is credited to a political humorist named Art Buchwald.  The quote stuck with me, as most quotes tend to, and I thought I completely understood what it meant at the time.  I was wrong, though, and my experience in Mississippi helped me realize it.  So tonight I thought I would offer a few lessons from our trip that made me realize just how accurate Buchwald’s assertion is.

The first lesson I learned on the trip was that when a disaster like Katrina strikes, the value of feelings, emotions, and memories suddenly spikes, while the worth of material and physical items plummets.  We’re conditioned as a society to believe that things like televisions, Playstations, and iPhones are necessary ingredients for a better-tasting life.  But when I was down there last March, I began to understand why this isn’t so.  Sure, comfort offers us some advantages.  But for all the devastating winds and flooding that Katrina brought with it, it also allowed us to see that we do miss certain things while being coddled.  We feel the most when we’re vulnerable.  Think about your relationships with those close to you and how they change when you’re scared – and threatened.  You probably say your “I love you’s” more often then.  We’re more straight-forward with each other when something is threatening our well-being.  We’re suddenly unconcerned with our physical possessions and more preoccupied with those we care about most.  One of the pivotal moments for me on this trip is relevant here.  Across the street at the site where a group of students and I were volunteering, a married couple named Harry and Ann were just putting the finishing touches on their rebuilt house.  Harry and Ann had already withstood one hurricane – Hurricane Camille in 1969 – and had just successfully conquered another.  Tim, another volunteer, and I had the honor of carrying in one of the last pieces of furniture for the couple – a beautiful china cupboard that wasn’t too heavy, but fairly awkward.  Upon setting it down on the ground after securing it from the moving truck, Tim and I heard the horrible sound of shattering glass.  Horrified, I looked down and saw the remnants of a mirror that slid down the back of this cupboard when we touched it to the ground.  I looked up, and as Tim and I began to apologize profusely, Ann surprised us by laughing.  Unsure of her reaction, Tim and I looked at each other.  Ann saw our eyes connect and reassured us that she was not angry.  “After all we’ve had to go through,” Ann explained in her Southern accent, “a broken mirror is simply funny.”  “Don’t worry about it,” she said.  I offer this story in hopes that we all use this Thanksgiving to be more thankful for the things we feel in addition to the things we see.

The other lesson I learned on the trip that relates to Buchwald’s quote is that it does not take much to have an impact on others and for others to have an impact on you.  As our groups began driving to our respective sites on our first full day there, I observed so much destruction.  There were chimneys and front steps on vacant lots, representing the houses that were blown or swept away.  The golden arches of a McDonald’s sign were hollow; sand was still in yards miles away from the coast.  I kept thinking, “How horrible!  How can these people stand being here?”  But I got my answer when we finally arrived at our site and we began working.  I looked around and saw the energy in the faces of those volunteering.  The positive feeling that originates from knowing you’re doing good is extremely contagious, and it not only showed that day, in that group of people, but the whole week, in most people we encountered.  The emotional and social components of the rebuilding process seemed to mean even more than the physical rebuilding to those that lived there; even if the government may have been slow to respond, these residents who have lost so many of their possessions (and some of them, their family members) can feel the energy of people they’ve never met working to ensure things are better for them.  Each screw we drove into the wall solidified our existence and our commitment to help.  I realized that one small screw meant everything for those we were helping.  And the impact was felt, then, in another direction.  Like I explained earlier in the story about Ann’s china cupboard, we took lessons from them.  We had a lot to do to help them rebuild their lives – both literally and figuratively.  But they supplied us with life-altering lessons on perspective and grace.  The fact that we were even down there led to this exchange.  And while we made the 1,111 mile trip to Gulfport, Mississippi to help, the same small gesture here can have just as big of an impact.  

So when you leave tonight after hearing these students read some of their own reflections, please be prepared to do two things:  1.) Embrace the unseen aspects of life – your relationships, your feelings, and your memories, and 2.) Give thanks to others through small gestures – you don’t know the impact you’ll have.  And finally, above all, when you celebrate with your loved ones this holiday season, please remember that, “The best things in life aren’t things.”

Current Location: Apartment
Current Mood: contemplative

Trying to get some time to write around here has been crazy!

It's been quite busy, as one would expect, with students doing everything they can to make this Friday come faster (Thanksgiving Break).  I think I might try to join them!

I do have some news to write about, but I'll wait do that in a later entry.

I hope everything is well your way!

Current Location: Apartment
Current Mood: happy