SAMB: New fangled Word Press blog

I've packed up and moved: http://mysandboxlife.wordpress.com/

SAMB: Lent, again.

Lent is sneaky.  

I wasn't expecting it again so soon, but there it is.  I had not even reflected on what I did last year, I had to go back and read about it refresh my memory.  Perk to blogging, reading about things I would have normally forgotten. Perk to reader comments, responding with what item I had actually given up.

This year, I am more intentional that last year. I'm thinking about Lent a whole 4 days in advance, that is planning right there.  I'm already sugar-free and thought about continuing that.  I also thought about bread again but that didn't really get me excited either.  Talking to the hubs this AM, he asked "what about adding something?" Brilliant.  Sometimes I'm so focused that the simplest thoughts do not even occur to me. So for this lent, I'm going to add something. And that gets me excited. The addition will be a practice of some sort.  An activity that will draw my attention to the state of my being. 

There are a lot of mindfulness practices like yoga, mediation, prayer, relaxation, devotion, silence & solitude, breathing, and according to the Mindfulness Practice Center at the University of Missouri sometimes bells are involved. Bells seem like too much for me and might lead me to punch someone in the face, which would be opposite of mindful.

I guess I'll just wait and see what the universe choses for me by Wednesday and go with that. 

SAMB: Saturday AM Blog

I didn't know a lot about college life growing up. Neither of my parents went to college, nor did my grandparents, aunts, uncles or the majority of my cousins as far as I know, except one.  Fortunately, the one cousin who did go to college, went to a really good one and after that, worked at really good ones and raised me with the assumption that I was headed to college after high school. I wanted to go far away, to the same college as one of my best friends in high school but my family couldn't afford it, so I stayed close which really was one of the best things thats happened to me. (Its great how in telling a story retrospectively you can summarize months teen angst, fighting, and drama down to "so I stayed close.")

College campuses are amazing places. I admit I'm spoiled because my alma mater and current place of employment is a recognized botanical garden but its not just historical structures and landscape design, its what happens in the environment. Although many parents consider sending their child(ren) off to college a gut wrenching loss, one which they may or may not survive, the best part of my year is fall semester when a new freshman class sends their parents back home and happily begin college life. The majority of the time, everyone adjusts. Students find their place in the community and parents adjust, well some parents can tend to have a harder time letting go than their student, but thats different story.

I have always enjoyed school because the structure, order, and rules make sense to me. It feels safe in that environment because I trust that someone is thinking about what is best for me as a student.  This particular Saturday morning I woke up thinking about what it could look like for me to complete a PhD program in something. I hope for the remainder of my professional career, I'm involved with higher education in some way. I want to make sure future generations of students know that someone is looking out for their best interests when it comes to learning. So when I'm feeling dreamy I get out the Google machine and look at programs in Higher Education Administration, Education Policy, Communication, Public Policy, English, Student Affairs, Sociology and whatever looks good that day.

Its a fun project, until I think about taking classes called "Research Methods" AKA Statistics and writing a dissertation but not really writing it, just starting it and ending up with the letters ABD (All But Dissertation) instead of PhD and then I panic and stop but it really is fun up until that point.