Home again

I got back from the conference yesterday afternoon and slept and slept and slept.

The conference was pretty fun, I had a good time, and it went by really fast.

On Thursday we arrived in Colorado around 4, but didn't leave the airport until 5:30, because our shuttles were late. We arrived at UC-Boulder with half an hour to check in, eat some Subway, and then run to Roll Call.

Roll Call was painful. It consisted of four hours of different schools standing up and cheering, dancing, and performing less than mediocre skits that were all very similar. After the first 10 I was done, ha ha. After that we went back to the hotel. grabbed a bunch of snacks from the hospitality room, and crashed.

We woke up every morning at 7:00 to get ready, eat the continental breakfast provided by our hotel, and then we were off to program sessions.

First off, finding our way around the campus was very difficult. For starters, North and South were completely backwards, because the mountains were now on our west side instead of our east side. This threw me off- a LOT! Next, all of the buildings had the exact same brick work and roofing tile. The buildings were all identical, and I wandered in circles more than once.

Back to programming. When we applied for the conference we had to submit a program, one that would be applicable to our jobs as housing leaders, and would be things we could take back and use on our campus. Then the conference coordinators selected about 80 programs from the ones submitted to present at the conference. 8 people were chosen to present from USU, which is a pretty big deal. On average, a school will have 2-3 programs chosen.

So Friday consisted of going to different programs. My program wasn't until Saturday, so I went around watching other people's. I hated all the programs I went to. The first was Root Beer Pong. The other delegates who went to this meeting were, well, let's just put it this way. UC-Boulder is ranked one of the top 10 party schools in the nation. They lived up to that title. I do not advocate drinking games I discovered, and was disappointed that student leaders from other schools were actually, on a regular basis, playing drinking games with their residents. I don't think it really matters even if you are using Root Beer, promoting drinking games in such a light hearted manner is bound to be bad. It just seems logical. I was furthermore surprised to hear everyone's drinking stories. One girl even leaned over smiling at me and said, "I played this one last week, and got so drunk I passed out." I smiled and thought to myself, "Wow, do you really want to go around telling people that?"

I guess I just don't understand this mentality. I don't see why it would be so cool to drink yourself to unconsciousness, or to binge drink period. Common knowledge tells you it is bad for you, so why in the world would you do it. On top of that, you look like an idiot, and you sound uneducated and unsophisticated bragging about it. Enough said.

The next program was titled, '21st Century Tie-dying.' It sounded like a lot of fun, and in their defense was a great idea, but the exexcution of the program was monotonous. It went like this:

"Hello everyone. We are going to make you a custom spray paint t-shirt. We have made this stencils you can choose from. Please form three straight lines and I will spray you a shirt. This is a great activity because people love free shirts."

That really was it. Then we stood in line for 45 minutes to watch someone else make you a shirt, smile and hand it over. In my opinion, waaaay boring, AND, people love free stuff, but why on earth would this activity be of value to anyone? It will in no way impact the community in which you live. Programs should better your community, bring a new idea to the table that will enhance and create relationships and the college experience.

The last program I went to for the day was good, and better than the first two, but not outstanding. Overall I was disappointed with my program experience, but it sounded like other people went to better programs.

Friday evening was a basketball game, and Casino night. UC-Boulder has the most pathetic crowd of students I have ever seen. There are about 200 of them, who sit, and barely cheer. About 100 people from our conference went to the game, all of us in UC-Boulder mustard color game shirts, and cheered louder than the entire stadium. Then we went to casino night, and I played texas hold 'em. I doubled my money in half an hour, my friend Justin crapped out about 5 times. Then I went home and slept.

Saturday I got up, and ran over to my presentation. I gave a presentation on 'Fighting the Freshman 15.' I had about 10 people show up, which is a decent number, and they all loved it. I gave some great tips on ways to eat right, tricks for knowing what to eat, snack options, tricky exercise options, etc. At the end of every program there is an evaluation to determine what programs will be in the top 10. On a scale of 1-10 in 5 categories, the participants evaluate the program. I got almost all perfect scores. An hour later I found out I had been voted into the top 10 programs, and would be presenting two more times. Both went really really well.

Saturday night we also had a banquet and a dance. This creaper guy kept following me around at the dance, and people were grinding around everywhere, which brings me to my next reason why I love USU and wouldn't trade going here for the world.

I know I have had my complaints about guys lately, and I still think there is room for improvment here at USU, but the guys at this conference and at the UC-Boulder Conference were dogs. They were total jerks and the comments I heard, and the way girls were talked about, completely disgusted me. I wanted to beat a few people up, I will admit. I couldn't believe the way the womanized and degraded the girls around them. It really opened my eyes to how good we really have it here at USU.

The guy at the dance wouldn't let me be, he kept trying to move in and dance with me and I had to keep politely rejecting his advances. He wanted to "Keep in Touch" I spelled my name wrong and told him to look me up on Facebook before finally fleeing the scene with my friends. We hid out in the dim lit disco bowling alley and played a round of funky bowling, and then did a couple Karaoke songs.

We woke up at four the next morning to get to the airport, fly home, and then I crashed.

More went on at the conference, there were key note speakers, games, etc, but that is the gist. I am just happy to be back at USU.

Now I have to get back to the grind. Things are busy, but I am doing well. I have to meet with my guidance councelor on Tuesday to determine the next 2-3 semesters I have left, and decide internships. Should be good.