Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Office: Redeeming the Time

Today’s blog is written from the heart of Cathy Harvey, Administrative Assistant
 

I sent an email to the college staff and faculty yesterday that simple said, Don’t look now, but it’s only 3 months until CHRISTMAS!!  Just thought you would like a little forewarning.”  One faculty replied back that they had Christmas music on at the time they received the email-ha!  I had to chuckle.  The early bird personalities will tell me they already started their list and shopping, and the last minute procrastinators tell me joyously they will be making gifts early Christmas morning to finish in time.

However, the truth is, regardless of personality type, the nature of the Administrative Assistant’s role necessitates keeping an eye on the calendar and planning ahead, especially as our student body grows. 

For example, I am always in the process of gathering travel plans as soon as parents will send them to me for the next holiday or major break: Labor Day (Sept), Thanksgiving (Nov), Christmas (Dec), Spring/Easter (Mar/Apr), Memorial Day (May), and Summer (June). It’s a year round vigil.  In fact, I’ll be sending the Fall Holiday Travel notice to parents any day now.

If the college plans to send Christmas cards, the process begins in September, gathering ideas between our office and the marketing department, and passing around the Christmas card list in October-checking it twice, who’s been naughty or nice? (Just kidding-we love you all!)

Graduation rattles around in the back of my head almost all year, although my bosses are not ready to talk about it until spring.  By the first meeting in January or February, there has already been plenty of planning in the works.  To date, third year parents have already confirmed their students’ names for graduation certificates with me, as well as their height and weight for caps and gowns. I already have the student cap and gown order ready to go as soon as they come back for the spring semester.   
Planning for their big day in June!
A rough draft of the commencement program is already crafted, state flags are being ordered to represent the graduates home states and countries, and on and on the behind-the-scenes preparations go.


The next holiday, Thanksgiving, as you know, takes lots of planning.  For many families, the meal alone seems to be the center of attention with days of menu planning, shopping, baking, freezing, and hours standing in the kitchen.  What appalls me is the enormous number of hours this one meal takes to prepare compared to the speed with which it disappears--usually about 20 minutes in our house.  Days of planning gone in minutes!


I have contemplated all this and concluded life is a series of long preparations, highlighted here and there with a grand event. Olympians train for 4 years or more to participate in some races that last 10 seconds.  4 years for 10 seconds!  Months are spent planning weddings, and I’ve seen some ceremonies that last all of 15 minutes.  It takes years of college and/or grad school to land a job.  I’ve decided I must try to enjoy the preparation as much as the finale, because the grand finale is merely the cherry on top of the icing on the cake.  The preparation is the meat of the journey. 

I think of our students.  Graduation is the crowning glory, a ceremony as grand and God-glorifying as we can put on for all the students and families, but what we are really celebrating is not the one hour ceremony, but their 3-year journey.  They came as frightened, shy, closed-off, first year students and day-by-day, they opened up, walked, stumbled, cried, learned, tried again, worked, prayed, rehearsed, interned, and plodded their way through what we hope was the most challenging and rewarding experience of their life up to this point.  It’s the JOURNEY of preparation that is so exciting!  That’s why we Tweet and Facebook and Blog daily and weekly.  We share with parents, friends, donors, and prayer warriors, how God is preparing our students for the most appropriate independence they can handle, beginning Day One after graduation. 

“Time to Fly” is about the journey.  Have we prepared them well?  We’re trying!  One step at a time.  One day at a time.  Semester by semester.  Year 1, Year 2, Year 3. . .we are, to the best of our abilities, from the office to the classroom to after-school life, redeeming the time.  We are intentional in making the best of every hour of every day, for their sakes and for God’s glory.

We’ve got to get ready, be prepared every day, redeeming the time, because the future is just around the corner!


Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.

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