Perspective

One of the lessons I have learned in life, is that what you see depends on where you stand- both literally and figuratively.

Let's start with literally. Everyone has their "dream concert." For 15 years my dream concert, if I could see ANYONE live in person, was Garth Brooks. As luck would have it, his recent One Man, Once City convert occurred in Kansas City, a mere 3 hours from where I live. So, thank you Ebay, because 13 bids and 2 tickets later I had seats to see the Artist of the Century.My "view" of the concert, if you will, was fabulous. My best friend and I were nestled right smack in the front row (ok, the front row of the 2nd section), for our dream concert. Being so close to the stage, we got to see every emotion that Garth had and it made the experience awesome. I imagine someone sitting in the nosebleed section (poor schmucks) had a different perspective than we did. They saw some tiny figure, resembling an ant, flitting around stage like a firefly.

I am certain that Garth had an entirely different perspective. Whereas we many things about him, his motives behind each song, even stalk his every move (or is it just me that does that?), I imagine he just sees just a sea of bodies- a mass of nameless, faceless fans huddled like Alaskan Salmon- squirming and fighting our way just to get an inch closer. Another day "at the office." We sat in the same city, in the same auditorium, on the same night, and yet what we saw and experienced were two totally different things. A difference of perspective.

Perhaps more important, is how our perspective changes figuratively. As my friend and I sat waiting for Garth to appear on stage, we reminisced about days past. We talked about what we were like as freshmen in college, and how now, 10 years later, after our lives have taken us down our respective paths, our outlooks and beliefs have completely shifted. We laughed about all of the things we believed and plans we made. Things we once thought, now seem ridiculous. Judgments we once made, now seem shortsighted. That change in perspective is to me, one of the very most important aspects of college.

Degree- yes, that's a big one. Friends, fun, Intro to Medieval Thinkers, yep, those are all important too. But perspective shapes the course of how you make all of your decisions. There have been many times where I have disagreed with a coworker, family member, friend, or stranger for that matter, and come to find out later that perhaps my perspective on the situation was skewed and if I had tried to see things from their side maybe I would have drawn a different conclusion. Tim Johnson, one of my very forward thinking and amusing professors, actually incorporated many stories into his curriculum with the aim of teaching us about this very concept- the idea that each person has a story and we shouldn't assume we know their thoughts, motives or interpretations because it is certainly different than our own. I remember filling out my end of the course evaluation and saying thank you- thank you for teaching me about perspective, or maybe it is empathy? Either way, I know I learned something important.

There is a saying that you can't know why someone has done something unless you've walked in their shoes... truly know their perspective. Good advice I think!

Can I have a wind advisory with that?

Hello from the road! Wow, where to start-let's see, oh yes, the wind.... Well, my van was doing the cha-cha on the open highway as I struggled to keep it on the road today! Gale force winds were giving me all they had but I prevailed. Well, the van prevailed, my hair... not so much. Every time I had to get out of the van for even a nanosecond my appearance took a nosedive.

By the time I arrived at my destination I looked....fabulous. I had the "are you kidding me, I'm honestly going to walk into my next appointment looking like this, where is a flat iron when you need one, maybe I can pass this off as a punk look" look.

Speaking of the cha cha. My good friend and colleague Andy got married this past weekend. It was a beautiful wedding.... until of course... the cha cha. If you haven't been to a wedding in the past year, you may not know of this outstanding phenomenon! It's the Macarena of the new century. Allow me to indulge you: (cue token hyped up drum beat music)
Clap your hands everybody
Slide to the left
take it back now yal
One hop this time
Right foot lets stomp
Left foot lets stomp
Cha Cha now yal!

This is one of those great, group dance things. By great I mean, terrible and annoying with the sole purpose of making adults look like buffoons. Because only one of two things can happen. 1) Either you don't catch on to the dance until 8 seconds before it ends, and in the mean time you have plowed into the groom's 80-year old grandmother- not once but twice, because you cha-cha'd the wrong direction, OR, 2) you actually know the dance and do it correctly, and frankly, that's not actually any cooler, and in fact may actually make you look like a bigger buffoon. Of course, any 8-year old in the house can groove the cha-cha like a celebrity on Dancing with the Stars. Little punks...


Lastly, let's talk about Grease Creatures- my latest way to pass the hours driving. You've heard of people gazing at clouds and looking for shapes? OK, this is the same thing, but you do it with the greasy leftovers of your drive-through food. You can use spent napkins, paper bags, or even that important piece of paper that accidentally touched your food and now forever has the greasy Ring of Doom imprinted on it.



















OK, expand your mind- now what do you see? A dog? A bunny? The Mona Lisa? Keep looking...maybe squint a little... Of course, the immense guilt of eating yet another greasy glob of goodness weighs on my mind and, on the best of days, I end of logging some miles on the treadmill. Then, feeling pretty good about my awesome workout, I head to Coldstone for a double scoop of chocolaty-brownie goodness. What? Would I like to add a dose of cookie dough and a chocolate dipped waffle cone for only 79 cents? Why sure! This probably seems like very unstable behavior to the outsider. Ok, it's definitely unstable... somewhere across town a psychiatrist is cringing... well, that, or a Jenny Craig rep- either way, I'm sure it's bad!

My quartelife...

The next time you approach a college rep at the beginning of a college fair, and she is sweating and panting and fanning herself with a brochure, just stop and ask yourself if there is ANY chance that she just navigated 8 blocks of city stairways, escalators and curb-checks while dragging a pull-cart loaded with over 50 pounds of college materials with her. IF indeed there is a chance, however small, that this could be the circumstance- proceed with caution...

On a completely unrelated note, I just wrapped another successful week of travel season This week saw me navigating the byways of downtown Minneapolis. I spoke with tons of great students and even learned that indeed, the word Hilton does have meaning beyond just celebutante blonds who favor bejeweled Chihuahuas. In fact, it's an interesting study of contrasts actually, because the Minneapolis Hilton was perhaps the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in- elegant and comfortable with the best customer service I've ever experienced. Now that's HAWT! (What? No? That word's not cool anymore? Oh it never was? Sorry...)

This week also signified my quarter-season the point where my fall travel is about a fourth complete. From here on out I'll mostly be cruising past the corn fields of rural eastern Iowa, struggling to find a radio station that plays music rather than livestock prices and contemplating life. And I'll be soaking up and enjoying every Iowa-farm scented minute of it!

One of my recent contemplations was about my quarterlife crisis. It's kind of like the midlife crisis, without the Botox and new car- because let's face- the mid twenties doesn't lend itself to such luxuries. OK, actually the quarterlife crisis is the panic the young twenty-something endures when realizing they don't actually know anything, the world is a scary place, somebody is trying to sell you insurance for EVERYTHING, they aren't moving up the corporate ladder fast enough, or, uh, that their corporate ladder resembles more of a homemade footstool made in shop class and the bottom rung of the corporate ladder is actually out of reach. I know each age has it's own pressures and worries, it's just that the twenties marks the beginning of a whole lot of grown-up issues. Take employment benefits for instance- deductibles, coinsurance and tax-deferred 401 K matches- most young professionals don't know the ins and outs of such goings ons, let alone that "French" benefits are actually "fringe" benefits- and oh yeah- they don't have any!

Rest assured- I am well past my quarterlife crisis. Well, I mean, I am slightly closer to 30 than 20 so, yeah, I'm good. I've learned a lot of things in my quarter-century (ok, plus just a little) years. I've already told you that I've learned to not be afraid of failure and that it's ok to cheer for the losing team sometimes. But I've also learned that life is too short and too precious to worry about the small things (this one is a work in progress..) I've learned that the way you see the world depends on where you stand. I've learned that empathy is admirable not weak. I've learned that you should never take love, happiness or life for granted.One of the cool things I've learned in my job is that dealing with people is as varied as the many paparazzi poses Paris Hilton has in her arsenal (that's a lot)! Some students love to talk to me on the phone...some don't (I know, it's hard to believe!). Some are looking for fun, excitement and activities in college, others are looking for study-tables, mentors and chemistry labs. Some love Facebook, others love textbooks! It's exciting and challenging and it's one of the things that make me love my job and working with high school students looking at Simpson!