There are a million things I want to tell you about. There are a million things that I want to record here for my own posterity that have yet to be recorded, for a myriad of reasons. I will do my best to catch up over the next few weeks - in the order that things happened. First - the University of Florida Student Personnel in Higher Education Visitation Days!

I was lucky enough to serve on an amazing committee of cohort mates who went above and beyond with their vision of Visitation Days. No one realizes how much work and planning go into 3 days of welcoming over 30 students to our campus but under Christina's leadership everyone pulled together and made it happen.

It was only a year ago that I was doing my own search for a Student Affairs program. What everyone tells you as a candidate but that you never truly understand until it's all over is that what is truly important in this search is the way that you fit - your values with the institutions, your goals with the goals of the programs, your personality with the culture. I applied to 5 schools and interviewed at 3 and they were all so completely different... in ways I never would have thought to consider. Administrative vs. counseling focus, theory vs. practical focus, cohort based or not (and then, TRUE cohort or not), 1 year vs. 3... the list goes on and on. I can say now that one of the things that impressed me with the University of Florida last year was how unapologetically honest the program director and the students are about what they have to offer and what they are NOT.

We don't know who has been accepted or offered a graduate assistantship yet. But I will say that I met some really incredible future student affairs professionals during Visitation Days. It was such an honor to host them and to, as a program and as a cohort, provide advice. Because of this weekend I'm not only more excited about my cohort (and how far we've come and how much love I have for most of these people) but I'm also excited about the profession and my future as a professional. I can't wait to work with and go to conferences with such fun and openminded and constantly learning individuals!

I get cheesy sometimes - but I mean it! :)

This is my favorite picture of the day and I wasn't even there! We had started a twitter hashtag (#UFVisDays2012) and encouraged prospectives to #tebow at us to show us their spirit. We got some pretty awesome responses and even convinced some faculty and students to #tebow so that we could send it out. Here, the whole group embraced it in the Swamp.

I am excited to learn who our new SPHE cohort is and who my mentee will be. I'm lucky - this wonderful woman helped me figure out where I belonged in school and continues to challenge me. Excited to be that for someone!

♥ Jessa

I know that I'm dating myself by using an awesome ZZTop song as my title, but whatever... it's applicable. Tonight's post is about something very important. Something I didn't value, or even think about until I needed to. My legs.

On the first day of spring break - March 3rd - my roommate, his girlfriend, Wayne, and I headed to St. Augustine for a spontaneous beach day and roommate's girlfriends birthday. We got there just as it was starting to pour, spent some time in the gorgeous storm, tanned beneath the resulting sunshine, and ran around. We had an amazing time. It was pretty much perfect.

More pictures to come of that. The one not perfect part of that was this moment right here...

This is where we had the wonderful idea to run at some birds and take a picture of it. See how far back I am from the birthday girl? That's because the moment we took off running I felt intense pain in both of my quads. From that moment on I couldn't walk properly, Wayne had to help me sit down at the restaurants, and we moved at a snail's pace.

Then, the very next day... I drove a 12 passenger van to Atlanta for Alternative Spring Break. While broken, yes. Poor decisions that I make because, what else was I going to do?! Now all was fine and I was pretending to be OK for a few days. The students and I walked around Atlanta, drove to Hiawassee, walked around the farm... I climbed a million flights of stairs getting from the cabin to the van to the lodge to the cabin with pretty normal amounts of pain. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, I began to bruise.

My doctor from home told me to go the Emergency Room right away to be checked for clots. She even terrified me by describing the mortal danger I could be in if a clot reached my heart, lungs, or brain. So I went. In true form, the emergency room doctor had me wait for a few hours, took some bloodwork, offered me painkillers (which I denied... I was on a trip with 12 students, did he really expect me to do that loopy?!) and sent me on my way. Except I was on bed rest for the next 36 hours. Luckily, my students are amazing and, for some reason, truly cared about me. They set me up this cute little bed in our common space so that I could watch movies and socialize throughout the day.

After driving back from Hiawassee (hello painful 10 hour drive) the bruises just seemed to get worse and worse. Finally Monday came around and the doctor's visits started - where they terrified me even more with ideas of ruptured muscles and possible surgeries and physical therapy. I won't bore you with the details but I will show you the funny pictures of me in the double leg braces I wore for a week.

After 4 doctor's visits and the most terrifying hour and a half of my life stuck in an MRI/microwave, and one super crazy long blog post, I can tell you the results. I am fine! I tore muscles in both of my thighs and now have pretty large hematomas (or bunches of blood) sitting in there waiting to be dissipated. This is almost definitely where the bruising came from, as free blood dripped down my legs and to the outsides of the muscles. I do not need surgery and I can stop wearing my super attractive leg braces. I do need physical therapy but I will heal almost all on my own, slowly but surely.

Fun Fun. Anyways, I thought that I would explain the whole story because I've been asked to repeat it more often that I can count. Plus, the pictures from each step of the process are pretty amusing and I want to remember this. I certainly don't want to put myself in a position where I wish I had taken pictures again - like that time I had mumps and my face swelled to more than twice it's normal size.

♥ Jessa

I arrived home from leading 12 students and one other advisor on my second ever Alternative Second Break trip. It was amazing; at every one of these I am renewed and continually amazed by the work that I do. This email in my inbox was timely and describes some of what we all learned in this experience.

“How to Build a Global Community”
Think of no one as “them”
Don’t confuse your comfort with your safety
Talk to strangers
Imagine other cultures through their poetry and novels
Listen to music you don’t understand * Dance to it
Act locally

Notice the workings of power & privilege in your culture
Question consumption
Know how your lettuce and coffee are grown; wake up and smell the exploitation
Look for fair trade and union labels
Help build economies from the bottom up
Acquire few needs
Learn a second (or third) language
Visit people, place and cultures – not tourist attractions

Learn people’s history * Redefine progress
Know physical and political geography
Play games from other cultures * Watch films with subtitles
Know your heritage
Honor everyone’s holidays
Look at the moon and imagine someone else,
someone else, looking at it too
Read the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Understand the global economy in terms of people, land and water
Know where you bank banks
Never believe you have the right to anyone else’s resources
Refuse to wear corporate logos: defy corporate domination
Question military/corporate connections
Don’t confuse money with wealth, or time with money
Have a pen/email pal *Honor indigenous cultures
Judge governance by how well it meets all people’s needs
Be skeptical about what you read
Eat adventurously * Enjoy vegetables,
beans and grains in your diet
Choose curiosity over certainty
Know where your water comes from

and where your waste goes
Pledge allegiance to the earth: question nationalism
Think South, Central and North -
there are many Americans
Assume that many others share your dreams
Know that no one is silent though many are not heard
Work to change this

*Unknown original origin. Sent to me by the director of my program as a forwarded email.

♥ Jessa