When I look ahead to next few months, I get excited and highly concerned about a variety of things. At work, we’re in the midst of hiring student staff to help with the myriad essentials for which we are understaffed but must endeavor to complete anyway - new student orientation, creating a consistent entry process for the majority of new students, calling and supporting struggling students to help them pass their courses, and supporting registration efforts. Once we make it through one cycle of all this, hit repeat. Welcome to work in Higher Ed.

We have big dreams and no budget. We’ve already carved out time to interview and hire these new staff from busy schedules. Originally, we planned to implement these changes over spring and summer to give use time to spread out interviewing, training, and set-up so that we had their work space (somewhat) settled, an office location for one of our colleagues secured, phones and emails set up as needed, and all other related departments on board. Now, some of this is all happening at once and I’m grateful I’m not doing it alone (because I don’t think I would have).

What I’m excited about - hiring passionate students who are excited to help others. I remember working as a peer mentor of sorts at the University of Arizona and I truly did enjoy it. I hope that we can provide a similar experience for our new staff and create new practices to better support all students.

Home is not as hectic, but it’s always stressful to be approaching a new transition. My partner is completing his education, and is planning to apply to a very interesting scholarship for the next leg of his education. If he gets it, that would lock us in to a fairly certain move in about two years but a guaranteed job in his new field upon graduation, so that would definitely be worth it. This town has treated him dismally when it comes to finding secure, meaningful employment. If he doesn’t land the scholarship, it seems most likely that he won’t continue his education right away and will be on the job hunt yet again.

I’m certainly not a Zen master, so holding those two competing energies in my center is difficult. Work is drawing me in with its chaos. Home is fraying my edges with its uncertainty. I’m an Anxious Annie and always have been, though recently I’ve been trying to get a better wrangle on the worry.

Some positive things to recollect and end on:

• It is sunny. I love the sunshine. I am currently recovering from the flu or a cold or something, so I’m not out adventuring in it, but I hope it returns again when I am up for the adventure.

• I sent out my linked collection for review by an agent! I’m always a little more excited about the writing life when I have work out for review.

• My choir performance is coming up in May and we’re singing one of my favorite songs. I think it’s a secret, so perhaps I shouldn’t link a version of it here.

• I’m likely taking a little vacation in May to visit my aunt and help organize her craft room (a great way to exhaust some of my seemingly endless anxious desire to create order from chaos).

• I’m going to spend a chunk of this afternoon (the afternoon that I am writing this, not the afternoon it is being published) sending out poems to all the weirder journals I can find. I’ve capped my budget at $15 dollars in submission fees, so hopefully there are a few free options.

Well, I should probably get cracking! The poems won’t send out themselves.