It’s All About Exercise: Body, Mind and Soul

Whew! I was shocked to realize it has been almost a month since I last posted a blog entry AND I still have one last Costa Rica one to wrap up and post (this weekend). Sheesh! I suppose it shouldn’t be shocking that the last blog was the weekend before classes started. Yep, that is the time suck right there! Any spare time I have is spent shackled to a book or writing a response to something I am reading. It’s okay, though, that’s what I am here for. It has been a good, but weird semester start. I started out ahead, and now I am behind/barely on top of everything (dependent on the moment and your interpretation!) I am really enjoying my classes and a lot is connecting and overlapping, which is a wonderful thing as I continue working on forming a philosophy and working framework that I can try and articulate when needed and apply to the work I want to do in promoting sustainable living.

I am taking Environmental Sociology, which is fun for me. I have taken quite a few psychology classes, but never a sociology class so I am enjoying looking at the topic through a new lens. This week we are to be reading Walden, which I have never read and writing a journal for a week straight about nature in all its forms. I am also taking what we call “602.” This is the second required class for my class and its official title is: Environment, Culture, Community, Economy: An Interdisciplinary Seminar. Don’t ask me what that really means yet. I just know, that like the Sociology class, it means a ton of reading. We have started with looking at the indigenous culture, and I have enjoyed learning more about that. We were also required to go hear Winona LaDuke speak who is an amazing activist in the realm of environmental justice with a specific focus on Native people. My wild card class is a journalism class called Documenting Southwest Parks. The instructors received a grant to work with the National Park Service and have the students create documentaries that the parks can use to promote the work they are doing. I am treating this as a research methods class of sorts as I really enjoy qualitative research and see this an opportunity to explore a variation on that. For the project I selected, I will be working with 3 photojournalism (or “PhotoJ” as they are called in the biz) students. I will rely on their passion and expertise in the photography realm, although I do plan to do a bit of experimenting myself, and I will concentrate on the research and interviews. My professor was even able to locate a project proposal that ties in with some of my interests. We will be travelling to the Verde Valley to the Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot Monuments to document their efforts to get local children and young adults connected with nature and the value of stewardship through educational and restoration programs. I am super excited and hope some of this will keep building towards the ever looming thesis. And then, just for fun, I am auditing a Construction Management class called Sustainable Buildings and Assessment. It will develop my building and facilities lingo, we get to take cool field trips, and it prepares us to take a LEED Green Associate certification exam if we are so inclined. Not sure yet, if I will, but I figure it can’t hurt and could look good on the old resume…

So in addition to studying and working, my other primary focus is being “Get In Shape Girl.” I have been extremely proud of myself for drastically increasing my level of physical activity since moving to Flagstaff. Mainly this has been happening through mostly giving up driving and relying on my feet and bicycle to get me where I need to be, as well as our weekend hiking excursions, but I have realized it is still not enough. I have needed to up my cardio and strengthening quota, so one of my goals with the start of a new semester was to take advantage of some of the group exercise classes that are offered, since they are “free” (I am sure I paid for them with one of the gazillion fees I get charged). I wanted to get them incorporated into my schedule from the beginning so that I could not make excuses or feel up the open time with other stuff. These are really the best option for me. I am a bit of a fair weather working out type of person. I hate exercise machines like the treadmill or elliptical. They are mind numbing and tedious. I don’t like to run, and I don’t like to walk or bike long distances when the weather is not an optimal temperature. So, a class keeps me motivated and moving. Someone else tells me what to do, and all I really have to do is follow the directions. Following directions doesn’t require too much thinking, but the concentrating and remembering of a sequence of moves distracts me from the fact that I am hot, and sore, and out of breath!

I am happy to report, so far so good! With the exception of last weekend when our temperatures were in the negatives and I just couldn’t bear the thought of stripping off and putting back on 3 or 4 layers just to work out, I have been getting to classes regularly. I have even been getting up for 7 am yoga, okay so not this week, but I am back on track next week! I am going to some Cardio Kickboxing classes which I always love, and this week I added a Stretching and Toning class that I really liked. My final step is to add in a Step class or two. I am feeling challenged, but not overwhelmed and not too out of breath. Now, my abs might argue with me about that whole challenge thing, now that I think about it. So I am pleased with myself and now I am just focused on keeping my momentum and having it be a continued priority.

R also took me out on a trail on my bike a couple of weekends ago. We went down to Sedona and went on the Cockscomb Area Trails. It was challenging, scary, and fun. I also had a big wipe out, but it has not scared me away, despite the fact that the bruises running down my left side are still a wee bit tender and are fading slowly! Really, the actual fall didn’t hurt that bad. I was a bit dazed, but not too traumatized. If anything, I was relieved that I had conveniently fallen between the tree and the cactus instead of on one of them! I also truly appreciated my helmet for the first time. Again, I didn’t really knock my head particularly hard, but I definitely appreciated the skull protection when I landed. Here are a couple of pictures of me including one of my battle wounds from where my gears scratched my calf. I think R was afraid he scared me off, but I assured him that I am ready to go back and am determined to not have to walk up those hills quite so much and have better control as I go down the hills. I suspect I will always prefer the tame and “easy” trails, but I think I will definitely add it to my list of recreational activities. Look at me branching out!

Don't I look cool?!?

Robert leaving me in the dust

Here I am in action. Such great scenery, too!

Yep, that's really me.

One of my ouchies!

My Self Change Project: Using a Car Less

Well, I guess my previous post was a prediction of me falling momentarily off the blog bandwagon. But now I am back and going to try and commit myself to one or two posts a week. Surely I can handle that right? I do have lots of fun ones started and floating around in my head. It is just hard to make time in between reading, writing, working and the occasional bit of housework and some fun, too! So stay tuned for more hiking adventures and our trip to New York City.

In the mean time, I am going to get a bit nerdy on you. I am a grad student after all. For my Conservation Psychology class, one of our assignments is a Self Change Project. After much deliberation and stress, I decided to undertake a pretty strict reduction in the use of personal cars as a means of transportation. I supposed I should also change that “I” to a “we.” Clearly, this decision affects R as well. Luckily, he is supportive and a good sport.

The basic gist is that for any in-town trips, we are not to use a car unless we are transporting something heavy or some other legitimate reason that would necessitate it. We are working on eliminating any trips that we would tend to make out of convenience or laziness. You should also note my use of “a car.” Although primarily focused on reducing the use of our car, we did not allow ourselves the loop hole of just always jumping in someone else’s car out of convenience. To further discourage our use of the car, we gave up our campus parking permit (for a refund of $375, thank you very much!) and moved the car to the parking lot of Robert’s studio which is about a mile away from our apartment. Probably ninety percent of the places we go would be within that mile radius anyways, so it would make no sense to go get the car. You may ask why we are not giving it up completely? Well, we wanted to allow us the opportunity to continue the weekend trips we have been taking to hike and explore the region. Perhaps a little selfish, but it is still going to be a change for us and a greater change in car use than most people would take. Research shows that making a public statement of intent leads to better follow through and commitment to making the change. So, I said I would write about the project on my blog. So here ya go! If you really want to know more about what I am doing and why let me know. I was going to attach my paper, but I can't figure out how! However, I am happy to send it to you if you ask.

I will leave you with a few questions to ask yourself:

Could you come up with one less car trip to make each week?

If you decided to change one behavior that has a negative impact on the environment, what would it be?

Harder Than I Thought

I have a few fun blogs in the pipeline that I need to work on and post, but I need to find the time first! In the meantime, I thought I would talk about my initial reactions to my first two weeks as a full-time student and a graduate assistant. Um, it was harder than I ever anticipated! For some reason, I think I was overly confident about how this would all flow and my ability to just jump in and be a rock star student. I mean, I have done this before, right? I was taking classes while working full-time at SMU. This was gonna be a cake walk! Let me just say that I do not know how my dear friend AMS does it.... She is in a grad program at SMU, a mom, pregnant, and working full-time, which for her always mean more than the obligatory 37.5 hours a week. I am humbled.

I typically think of time management and organization as my strong points, but they failed me as I kicked off the year. I felt frantic and unorganized and rushed. My schedule is not a routine yet. I chose to participate in activities like a cohort potluck, my birthday fun, and J's birthday fun that took away from time I really should have been reading and writing. And I have lots of work to do. More than I remember... My dear husband assures me that I was this busy the first time around in graduate school, but either I have forgotten or blocked it from my memory. I still insist that I was not reading 300 or more pages a week with weekly writing assignments in all classes and bigger projects already looming in the near future.

My grad position is hectic as I figure out how my schedule is going to work, how I will get my work done in only about 10 hours of office time (as I am bound and determined to not consistently go over my 20 hours a week - I do not get paid enough to commit full time work to this position!), and my new staff have lots of questions and needs which are often not things I can respond to quickly and easily as it is all new to me, too.

Oh, and don't even get me started on the apartment. Our kitchen is a wreck and the rest of it could use a little attention.

However, on the flip side, I am super excited about my classes. I love what I am studying and I feel like this was why I chose all this craziness. I am inspired and excited. I love being surrounded by people who have similar passions and interests. I get involved in fascinating conversations that make me feel very intelligent and wise (and sometimes not so much!). As I have spent time individually with each of my Community Mentors and started the process of getting to know them, I become more excited about my year of working with them. They have lots of passion, enthusiasm, and energy. I am blown away by the wisdom and maturity of some. I know I did not have my life and plans together like they do already. I have been able to continue using my student affairs counseling and practitioner skills with some of them to talk about life and their fears and ideas for the future.

This year is going to challenge me like no other has from a mental standpoint, but I think I am ready. Now, I really should get back to studying as I do want to get out and enjoy the day a bit as well.

And So It Begins!

After a whirlwind 6 weeks, fall semester has arrived. Again, it felt weird to not be actually opening a hall, but I certainly didn’t mind too much. I got a lot more sleep than I usually do at this time of year and my stress level was almost none existent! I did help out with Opening Day. My job involved directing traffic for the new freshman arriving at our largest residence hall, which has over 800 students. The Residence Life department does not have centralized desks or check in so each student checks in at their specific residence hall. It was a warm afternoon, and I ended up with a sunburn on my legs, but it beat opening a building in the 100 degree August heat of Texas!

The next day, I FINALLY got to meet the students that I will be supervising and working with this year. We spent the whole day in training, so I really didn’t get much 1:1 interaction with them, just a series of first impressions. Overall, I am excited about the group. As with any group of individuals, I have a detected a few that may be a little more challenging to work with than others, but that’s how it always works, right? On Saturday, we had some team building with both mine and A’s staff at the NAU Challenge Course. We started off with the high ropes challenges, and I fully went into it planning to just be a spectator and cheer the others on as I have a pretty healthy fear of heights. I can’t even jump off the 3 meter diving board. All of sudden, A came up to me, and said that he thought we should try it. After a momentary pause, I said, okay, let’s do it! I don’t think he fully expected me to be so agreeable, and I saw a little glimmer of terror in his eyes as we went to stand in line.

So, then it was our turn. The object was that we each climbed up separate poles to a wire extended about 20 feet high in the air in between the poles. We were to inch towards each other holding onto a rope that would allow for support until we got to the middle. We then had to use each other and a second rope to start inching across an intersecting wire to get to the end. The trick is that the middle rope does not extend at all, so one of us has to be the support and hold onto the rope while stretching out as far as possible so that the other can inch across the wire to the end and then follow.

I was in pretty rough shape once I got about ten feet in the air. I paused, and my leg started “doing the Elvis.” If you don’t know what that means, then just picture me doing my best imitation of Thumper the rabbit. After some deep breaths, I got myself under control, and started climbing again. The mounts to hold onto and put your feet on are spread pretty far apart. So, just the climbing itself was pretty challenging in trusting that I had the strength and balance to pull myself up from mount to mount. Often I would have to stretch up on my tippy toes and just barely be able to grasp the next mount and then have to pull myself up. I got to just below the wire and got intimidated again and stopped. I looked over at Aaron, and told him I didn’t know if I could do it. He and everyone on the ground kept encouraging me to keep going, so I got my shakes under control and kept going. Finally, I was on the wire and once again, I was like what the hell am I doing? With Aaron’s constant encouragement and pausing to refocus and balance, I kept going. Did I mention that time seems to creep along while you are doing this? We finally met in the middle and attempted to go down the intersecting wire. After trying to figure out the best method, Aaron asked to opt out, and I agreed. Of course, then he almost pulled me down with him as he wouldn’t let go of me as his person brought him down! Luckily, he realized that he needed to let go, and I didn’t go crashing to the ground! So, we didn’t complete the challenge, but it was still a victory for me. And, I am never doing that again!

The morning, did provide the opportunity for some great interactions with my CMs and continued to get me excited for truly starting my job. I started meeting with them this past week, which was the first week of classes. We had our first staff meeting, and I started biweekly 1:1s with half of them. I thought the staff meeting went fairly well, and the individual meetings went really well. This is not surprising as I enjoy those interactions much more and are more my style.

This week has brought many adjustments. The campus has changed completely, and I feel like it sort of snuck up on me. It is funny how quickly we forget what the campus should really be like and get used to the empty college campus of summer, especially when you start out a new job in the summer. Suddenly, the campus is full of life and people and noise. Everywhere you look, there are people everywhere at most hours of the day. There is the energy and enthusiasm that always comes with the start of a new school year. It is actually pretty cool to be on such a lively campus, even at night. As I have walked about campus, I see people lounging in the grass, playing sand volleyball, throwing Frisbees, smoking hookahs, biking, skateboarding, walking… I think you probably get the picture.

The other big adjustment is starting my classes and figuring out my new routine and schedule. I feel like I spent all week being late or almost late as I rushed from one thing to the next. The change time between classes can be a little crazy, especially if you are on a bike. As you approach intersections you have to look four different ways and assess for both pedestrians and other bikers. Once you arrive, then you have to find a place on one of the bike racks. The amount of bikes on this campus is surreal. Then you have to fumble with your lock, and after the whole fiasco with Robert’s bike, I am super paranoid and lock both wheels and the frame, which takes time to weave and secure. I guess it will get easier as the year progresses.

When I think about the classes themselves, I become both exhilarated and freaked out. I love what I am taking, and they are all aligning perfectly with my interests. However, I think I had forgotten about the work load of graduate level classes. All have an extensive amount of reading and an almost weekly writing assignment, interwoven with larger projects and papers. I am certainly going to be busy, but at least I will be enjoying the subject material. It is also really fun to be surrounded by such a diverse cohort that has similar philosophies but so many varying interests and passions. With each day, this feels more and more right. I hope that continues to be my semester.