"You Don't Act Like an Introvert..."

Yesterday, the TIPsters arrived and all of the bullshit the site was dealing with up to that point no longer mattered. The chaos that had ensued throughout training was almost worth it because the TIPsters were finally here safely and that's what was important.

Sporting all the Duke Blue
for Arrival Day

My day kicked off at 5:30AM with a freezing cold shower to wake me up followed by a trip to the office where I was greeted by a Red Bull from our Operations Coordinator. I decided to try to make myself look slightly presentable by putting on some makeup since parents would be dropping off their kids to mostly strangers who look like slightly more grown up kids.

Arrival Day went rather smoothly in regards to logistics. All of the TIPsters arrived before 6:30PM and were all able to attend the student orientation session (which is a first for UGA since I've been working here...). It was a small victory so I'll take it.

Aside from being down two RCs for most of the day, the ResLife side of things ran rather smoothly. We had hired a new RC, who arrived in the early afternoon, and as soon as she was cleared to interact with the TIPsters, jumped right in to help out with parent arrivals. I was incredibly impressed by how quickly she became comfortable in her role, despite being thrown into a position she knew nothing about the same day the students arrived on site. It was also great to see the ResStaff take her in as if she had been with us all along.

ResStaff is the best staff

As the day progressed, I became more and more exhausted from all of the social interactions. Every time I tried to escape to the office for a few minutes to recollect myself, another parent had a "pressing" issue that needed to be resolved. Obviously I responded to everything with a smile on my face, but I could feel myself getting sassier and sassier as the day went on.

Around 2pm, we had an orientation for the parents to ease them into leaving their kids with us for three weeks. I had a ton of energy and made sure the parents felt great about having their kids stay with us at UGA. After our spiel was complete, a few parents came up to us and thanked us for all the information and that they felt better about dropping off their TIPsters. We even had some parents side with us about the importance of limited cell phone hours and no WiFi access in order to keep the TIPsters engaged with one another and gain the full TIP experience.

As we were leaving, our On-Site Director mentioned to me that I don't seem or act like an introvert. I explained the common misconception that introverts are always reserved. In reality, being introverted just means that at the end of the day, I need to recharge alone instead of around others like extroverts. I told him that at TIP I am much more outgoing than I am in my real life, mostly because the kids respond well to that type of personality, but it is incredibly exhausting for me to be so "on" so often.

By the time I met with all of the TIPsters, I had just enough time to have scarfed down a small plate of Chinese food before sprinting over to the student orientation session. During this, our On-Site Director and I worked really well with one another and made sure the TIPsters really understood the rules our site had in place.

After a wonderful introduction of the entire staff and a killer rules video made by the ResStaff, we dismissed the TIPsters except the 4th years. These students are the oldest on the site and receive orange lanyards instead of green to show their seniority. The conversation was meant to remind them all that the younger TIPsters would be looking up to them and that bullying/hazing of anyone would NOT be tolerated. (Apparently my voice was stern enough during both meetings that the students seemed to be intimidated and scared. I had to let some of the 4th years know that I still love them, but I wasn't tolerating their bullshit this summer. Hopefully they understand...)

Once the meetings were over and the TIPsters were all back in Myers, I made my rounds, reintroduced myself, and asked all the kids to make sure they say "hi" and tell me their names whenever they see me. (I'm making an effort to get to know all of the TIPsters and it will be way less difficult if I get their names down early on.)

Around 9PM, I hit a wall, hard. I was so mentally and physically exhausted from socializing all day that I was struggling to get up and talk to people. Unfortunately, the next two hours involved getting up and socializing. I powered through and when I finally spoke with my staff at the end of my day, they all sent me to bed because they could see how drained the day had made me.

I thanked all of them for their hard work and explained that my introvert was showing, forcing me to bid them adieu for the evening earlier than I would've liked.

I'm hoping the next few days are less chaotic so I can relax, but I won't hold my breath. TIP is exhausting and I love (mostly) every second of it. I'm excited to see what the rest of the summer holds for our site and look forward to sharing (what I can) with you all.

PS: I'm missing you a whole hell of a lot
while I'm here, in case you didn't know