revolutions

when I'm feeling those troubled days, weeks, I always find comfort in reflection.

writing in my journal, catching up on my latest read (that has nothing to do with my profession)

pulling my thoughts, ideas, and feelings together. and sometimes "it" just happens.

"it" meaning the moment when it all makes sense. life's happenings make sense.

how does this happen?

when I open my favorite bed side accessory.

my bible.

God always has a message for me. He always sends me down the right path.

where did He send me tonight?

Isaiah 40:31

but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

makes perfect sense to me.

thanks big guy.

I love Jesus

So powerful.

take what you need.

Starting the new year with my residents, I realized everyone is in need of a little something everyday.

I can attest to that.

I will be taking some patience, strength and freedom with me today.

Im sure you have a day that goes by that you might not be seeing/feeling that life component that makes you feel complete.

Oh, its okay to admit it. I will.

It happens to me. My co-workers. I'm sure you as well.

I encourage you to take what you need today.

What will it be?

Are you not doing all things through Love? Take some love, please.

Are you loosing Faith? Take some faith, please.

Are you searching for Patience? Take some patience, please.

Take what you need.

two zero one two

Lets try to look at today a little bit differently. We spend New Years Eve/Day walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential.

There won't be changes made for this new year.

But, there will be room for potential.

Happy Two Zero One Two.

The Chapter

I would like to say that I have have the privilege of working with Eric Luke for the past four months.

I knew he was awesome, but now?

He just went up 10 points in my book.

I love the show, The Office and as a Greek Life Professional, this combination just made my day.

Go Delts.

service.

Have you ever wondered what exactly it is that I do or aspire to become? What exactly does a Fraternity and Sorority Advisor in Higher Education do?

Common misconception or response? "Oh, you plan parties?" Shsh yourself. Current FSA and myself arn't working our asses off in Graduate School or in our Professional lives to plan that kegger that apparently happens on the weekend.

Danny Catalano stated that as professionals, "We care about our students, for their organization and the future it holds."

"Our job is much more like an art, than a science," says, Eric Luke. Our purpose is to create, not just to discover.

I think this just about hits it right on the head...

Thank you Phi Delta Theta.

We Have Work To Do

By Annie Carlson

When I tell people I’m a fraternity and sorority advisor, I receive several reactions. Whether that’s a look of shock and horror or comments like, “That’s a full time job?” I’ve pretty much heard it all. My least favorite response is, “So you help fraternities plan parties?” I respond simply with,

“No, I don’t have time for that.”

In 2006 I was a senior at the University of Illinois attempting to figure out what I was going to do with my life. I loved being a history and anthropology major and thought a museum might be the place for me. However, I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that I needed to do something that would make a difference in the world. Cue the entrance of my Greek advisors. I remember sitting with them, asking why fraternity and sorority members say they believe in something when our actions are far different. And they simply said, “Have you thought about advising?” My world changed, and I never looked back.

I didn’t become an advisor because Greek Week was awesome or because my sorority made cool shirts or because I wanted to help fraternities plan parties. I don’t have time for that. I became a fraternity and sorority advisor because we have work to do. A lot of it.

Fast forward five years, and you’ll find me at the University of Oregon where I have the privilege of working with a community that is willing to think. There are a couple key parts to this statement. First, my job is a privilege. I get to spend my days supporting and challenging students in their growth, and I’m lucky enough for those students to be members of an experience I deeply believe in. Second, the ability to think is crucial and often seems rare to locate. In lower levels of the college environments, students are taught to memorize facts. Hopefully by junior and senior year students have moved into the realm of contemplating and engaging their coursework. Often this is leading to shifts in beliefs or attitudes. The ability to think, ponder, wonder, dive deep into possibilities – that is what we often lack in the fraternity and sorority world. In so many unfortunate ways, our membership has taught us to respect tradition so highly that we’ve lost our ability to question it.

Now this is why I am a fraternity and sorority advisor! I have endless amounts of time to work with students, collegiate chapters, inter/national organizations, alumni and colleagues across the country who are ready and willing to engage in critical thinking about the fraternal experience. I would venture to guess most fraternity and sorority advisors feel this way. Survey advisors across the country about their daily activities. What you’ll find is most spend their time acting like emergency room doctors. Major injuries come in, the doctor stops the bleeding, fixes as much as possible and moves on to the next patient. The problem is that no one goes to the emergency room because they’re healthy. So if the majority of an advisor’s time is consumed in the emergency room, they are rarely able to leave the hospital and encourage people to stay healthy. What I’m saying is that if the dysfunction in our fraternity and sorority communities takes nearly all of an advisor’s time to deal with, there’s nothing preventing the high performing chapters from falling among the rest. We need to spend more time among the healthy encouraging them to prosper than fixing the wounds of chapters that live high risk lifestyles. We simply don’t have the time for that.

Earlier I said I became an advisor because we have work to do. So let’s get working! As undergraduates, alumni, headquarters staff and campus-based professionals, it’s time for us to start asking some tough questions. What do we want this experience to be? What purpose can we serve? How can we change the world? It’s not always about how we were founded – it’s hard to make a personal connection to our founders when some of them lived over 200 years ago. It’s about exploring what fraternity could be in light of tomorrow’s student. Easier said than done, and I don’t have a solution. What I do know though, is we have an opportunity to engage undergraduates in a critical conversation about what they’re experiencing. I don’t think we give enough credit to the abilities and brilliance of today’s student to move mountains when given the chance. We also have the opportunity to engage an incredibly optimistic population in the world of possibility. What if fraternities and sororities could ____? Let’s let our undergraduates fill in the blank and then help them realize the potential. It’s time to “live with a healthy disregard for the impossible.”

We don’t have time to talk about parties anymore. And we certainly don’t have time to “do things as they’ve always been done.” But we have endless amounts of time to create something new and like a phoenix, to rise from the ashes a reborn and meaningful experience. I became a fraternity and sorority advisor to engage in the conversation, so let’s do work!

Annie Carlson serves as the Fraternity and Sorority Advisor at the University of Oregon. A 2007 graduate of the University of Illinois, Annie went on to receive her master’s degree in higher education from Florida State University in 2009. Annie volunteers for the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors, Oregon Women in Higher Education, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with friends, traveling (A LOT!) and hunting down the perfect glass of red wine.

not so smart iphone

Typical morning in the Housing & Greek Life Office. Preparing for the end of the semester. Not just my Graduate load that I have on my shoulders, but the preparation for Formal Recruitment in the Spring, closing shop in my facility (have I mentioned that my Tri Delta ladies are amazing, well they are) oh and preparing for AFA Annual Meeting in St.Louis. Clearly I don't have anything on my plate right now. Sarcasm?

Anyways, as I was sippin on my coffee and checking my email, basically going through my traditional morning routine, I came across this article posted by the AFLV, Association of Fraternal Leadership & Values, and I couldn't help but share.

Clearly the new iPhone REALLY ISNT up to date.

Fraternal Life: Not an Ad Campaign

I don't think Siri even knows what a fraternity or sorority is. I find this hard to believe since she knows everything - including how much wood a woodchuck would chuck if it could chuck wood.

We asked Siri, "what are fraternal values?" and she had nothing. When we asked why she had nothing, she referred us to the Genius Bar folks. We felt snubbed. She couldn't even think of something witty to say. So, we got to thinking.

Why doesn't Siri know more about fraternal organizations?

Maybe it's good sign. Maybe the fact that she didn't respond with something horribly cruel, stereotypical, or Animal Housey should make us happy.

Or, maybe she's just practicing the age old adage "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

Well, now we're just paranoid.

All of this begs the same question that has been asked a thousand times: what do the non affiliated think of us (we're making the safe assumption that Siri isn't a sorority gal)? But, more importantly, how are we earning our reputations? Far too often, fraternity and sorority members talk about PR from the viewpoint of wanting to pick and choose a few good things they've done in order to guide and control how the rest of the world views them. For example, we create a press release about the $2,000 raised at last week's philanthropic event and want the world to read it with awe but get pissed when people talk about us when we get busted for hazing.

In order to have a good reputation, a few things need to happen. First, you have to actually do good things. Second, you have to actually be a nice person. Third, you have to do good things and be a nice person consistently - and not just for show. We have little tolerance for fraternity and sorority members who say stupid things like "people only know us for the bad things we do." Um, the problem isn't that people only know about the bad things, the problem is we're doing the bad things.

Okay, blah blah blah, you've heard this before. But, here's a spin you might not have heard before: flaunting that aforementioned $2,000 kind of makes the whole fundraising action a little less authentic - if we may be so bold. The best leaders tend to let their actions speak for them; they don't run around shouting, "Hey, everyone! Come see how good I look!"

We can't pick and choose what people know about us. We can't advertise the good stuff and hide the bad stuff. Worse even, we can't do the good stuff to make up for the bad stuff. I mean, Lindsay Lohan can say she's a stable and reliable adult a million times but no one is ever going to believe her if she keeps acting like a head case all over the place. Call it JV, call it Gaper Greek, call it whatever, you get the idea.

So, Siri doesn't know who we are. Fine. We can wrap our brains around that. We shouldn't need Siri - or the rest of the population - to tell us we're great to know that we are. We'll let our actions speak for us

Thank you AFLV.

patience is passion tamed

It was just a normal Tuesday morning, but something was different. Hm, how to put this?

Oh yes, it just felt off. Maybe the cough building up? Nope, that was a given hence my long Halloween weekend.

More like a knot, but the problem is I couldn't figure out if it was coming from:

my heart

my stomach

my head

clearly I'm running out of major bodily "areas." & have I figured it out still, even at 910pm? Nope. Nada.

Sitting in the office. Working at my computer. Going to my meetings.

Lunch with coworkers. Class, my favorite one, I might add.

More work in my facility. Homework.

Perhaps I can say that my busy Tuesday led to me ignoring what was a bother, but nope. Followed me.

If you haven't noticed. AKA, you're a first time reader or a passer-byer.

I write about motivation/faith/purpose.

and providing that for my readers.

BUT.

it was today that I needed the motivation/the courage to have faith/and remember I have purpose.

As i was walking home this evening (PS, this would have been more helpful in the AM, but this will do)

I found a sticky note on the ground that read,

Having a rough morning? Place your hand over your heart. Feel that. That's called purpose.

You're alive for a reason. Don't give up.

Taking this as a sign for the smart guy above, I knew that this Tuesday was just a speed bump in my week.

I came home and went to post this quote on my Pinterest. & what do you know?

there.it.is.

the.same.EXACT. quote.

clearly, someone up there is trying to tell me something.

I put down all my homework. my office work. I put down all my fears/insecurities and just read.

I just opened up my Bible without hesitation.

This is what I opened too:

And now these remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 corinthians 14:13

You have faith? Great.

But, you must have love. love saves.

I can honestly say that opening my bible this evening was the most refreshing thing I have done.

in days. in weeks.

Falling asleep to Student Development Theory? Not tonight.

Crazy Love, you have brought me back where I belong. Round 2, here we go.

GOD IS LOVE.

undergrad.

Thank you Roger for sharing this. I officially miss Chico, like a lot.

best memories.

19 October 2011

& someday. I'm going to be free & I'm going to travel the world.

I do what I feel in my heart is right, cuz, lets be real

I'm gonna be criticized for it anyways.

There is always time for a glass of wine. or a beer.

Where I invest my love is where I invest my life.

& when I'm down to nothing, I know God is up to something.

I'm clothed with strength and dignity and laugh without fear of the future.

i am.

happy wednesday night readers.