Justin and I are back to being friends again (which happened some two, three weeks back). So yay! It's just that one big fight that derails things momentarily. Back to cracking one-liners and exchanging banter; it feels great to regain a friend.
Anywho, Summer's coming close to an end. Past the drama of the Malaysian Midwest Games 2014, the adventure of the ASM Conference 2014 at Boston, the hustle and bustle of Summer classes, the trials of having hyperthyroidism, the mind-bashing task of fleshing out an original drama script single-handedly, the spectacle of which is the Iowa State Fair and the impact of being an International Orientation Leader, it's been a crazier three months than anticipated. Life just loves to throw in that late right hook to take you off-guard.
I'll just talk about the International Orientation, which happened from Monday to Wednesday, in separate sessions. Besides the two-day crash course of a training session under the new ISSO Orientation Coordinator, Silas Pippitt (top-class bloke, just full of humor and passion), I felt under-prepared to serve as an orientation leader.
This was by no comparison an equivalent of the Destination Iowa State (DIS) orientation; students coming into this orientation program know the bare minimum of things, and as such we orientation leaders must know almost every detail of things to the nine. Things like dining options, course credits, document drop-offs, how to get around campus, and all that jazz are the few of many things I get asked.
Regardless, we team leaders (21 of us) handled the tasks given with aplomb. At least, most of us did. There were some people who were rather unprofessional. To be blunt, I felt like an adult stuck with a bunch of kids for peers; some were just goofing around and did not properly represent Iowa State University as an established student in The States. Over our post-orientation debriefing, I assumed the bearer of bad news and criticized the team for lacking these attributes. We simply weren't good enough.
If there's one thing that I can take from my recent class of Speech Communication 212 (ridiculously fun class), your body language and word choices shape your audience's perception of you as a speaker. Words like an abrupt "follow me" or "let's go" are reserved for lap dogs, and not for a dozen-or-so group of naive, clueless incoming students, with some not having English as a proficient language. Some team leaders yanked their team by a leash, and I felt that injustice was given.
Thankfully, the members present during our debriefing took the advice really well and learned from it. At least, I would like to think so. On that note, here are some pictures of my experience of being an ISSO Orientation Leader.
Snapchatted it
My group for Day Two (College of Design and Engineering). Great peeps
Yeah.
Majority of the team leaders
So yeah, I'll leave it there. Wow, my knees are about to drop from the three hours of futsal. Whooop!
Re: Stacks - Bon Iver
