Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Go Team!
After our SCAMMPERR hunt on Wednesday night I was drained. We had a few bumps early on but managed to forge ahead. Some of our readings on team work, cooperation and group think related directly to feelings that I was having on Monday night. With not much time to plan, my group headed off to Merle Hay Mall where we ran into some tight laced mall security who told us we couldn't take any pictures in the mall. This initial glitch through us off our track, we slowly headed toward Target and ideas slowly began to hit us. It seemed at first that some of my group members had suggestions to make, but were hesitant to do so. After awhile it felt like we had already stalled out...we were all standing around in a random aisle waiting for something to hit us. We had members of our group that were much slower to speak their minds than others, which after reading more of Unstuck, made me think we maybe had a hint of 'group think' during parts of our adventure. At times I was slightly frustrated because I felt like a few us were tossing out ideas with out much criticism or response from the rest of the group. Toward the end of our hunt our team seemed to have a more balanced cohesion, it just took us a little while to reach a point where everyone was actively participating which made the entire experience much more enjoyable. You could say that we finally had the "right mix."
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Growing up?
I really feel like I am going to start using this as a journal...I have kept journals for as long as I can remember; but this semester instead of scribbling out a few thoughts in notebooks I will be posting them on my very first blog.
This January has been much different than any other January I have ever experienced. And since graduating last May, I have experienced more "firsts" than I had thought possible. A fair amount of my friends finished in May, after four years of classes, parties and roommates galore we all started moving away from Iowa City throughout the course of the summer. One by one college was ending for each of us. My rent was up at the end of July, and I moved back home to Des Moines.
The fall went along quite smoothly, I was here with pleanty of warm weather and several friends, weekends were filled with tailgates and football watching, and I had the holidays to look forward to...meaning that everyone would be back on and off throughout the Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks. But once the hustle and bustle of the holidays slowed, January set in, heavy.
It all started on Dec 29th, when one of my good friends got married. She is the first of our group of friends...I had my high school graduation party with her, she now lives in Maryland. Another close friend moved on the 3rd to Chicago, the following weekend two more friends departed for North Carolina, and Florida, and just this pass weekend another good girl friend moved to Boston. In the course of 4 weeks some of my closests friends since highschool were scattered about the country. I am so excited for all of them, I want them to do well, and succeed at whatever they have set out to do, but it is the strangest feeling not to see these people every day. I was used to basically falling out my front door in Iowa City and being surrounded by people, friends and classmates.
Right before I graduated my boss at the time told me that the year after graduation was the most lonely she had ever felt. I did fine all summer and fall, but then came January and zapped the life right out of me. All also read recently that january has some how been proven to be the most depressing month of the year. I have never once considered myself to suffer from any sort of depression. But a nasty combination of freezing cold weather, snow, and friends moving away faster than I can count really did a number on me in the month of January.
February is looking better and brighter already. I have trips planned all throughout February and into March with many of my old college friends and I am beginning to find a bit of my own rhythm here in Des Moines...now I just need to save up enough money to move out of mom and dads.....seriously.
This January has been much different than any other January I have ever experienced. And since graduating last May, I have experienced more "firsts" than I had thought possible. A fair amount of my friends finished in May, after four years of classes, parties and roommates galore we all started moving away from Iowa City throughout the course of the summer. One by one college was ending for each of us. My rent was up at the end of July, and I moved back home to Des Moines.
The fall went along quite smoothly, I was here with pleanty of warm weather and several friends, weekends were filled with tailgates and football watching, and I had the holidays to look forward to...meaning that everyone would be back on and off throughout the Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks. But once the hustle and bustle of the holidays slowed, January set in, heavy.
It all started on Dec 29th, when one of my good friends got married. She is the first of our group of friends...I had my high school graduation party with her, she now lives in Maryland. Another close friend moved on the 3rd to Chicago, the following weekend two more friends departed for North Carolina, and Florida, and just this pass weekend another good girl friend moved to Boston. In the course of 4 weeks some of my closests friends since highschool were scattered about the country. I am so excited for all of them, I want them to do well, and succeed at whatever they have set out to do, but it is the strangest feeling not to see these people every day. I was used to basically falling out my front door in Iowa City and being surrounded by people, friends and classmates.
Right before I graduated my boss at the time told me that the year after graduation was the most lonely she had ever felt. I did fine all summer and fall, but then came January and zapped the life right out of me. All also read recently that january has some how been proven to be the most depressing month of the year. I have never once considered myself to suffer from any sort of depression. But a nasty combination of freezing cold weather, snow, and friends moving away faster than I can count really did a number on me in the month of January.
February is looking better and brighter already. I have trips planned all throughout February and into March with many of my old college friends and I am beginning to find a bit of my own rhythm here in Des Moines...now I just need to save up enough money to move out of mom and dads.....seriously.
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