#74 - Skateboard

When I wrote this item, I wrote, "start, skate at least 100 meters, stop."  At the time, that seemed impossible.

Last year, I chose to surf at least 10 times.  I knew I loved surfing, so I made it a priority, put it on my to do list.  In January I decided to sign up for a wakeboarding class.  I'd been wakeboarding for years but wanted to really learn more.  I also went snowboarding this year.  I have come to realize I truly love board sports.  There's something about connecting to the ground, the water, in a new way, moving fluidly, moving laterally.

With just 2 weeks left in California, it was now or never in learning to skateboard.

Well, not really.  I could skateboard anywhere.  But I had access to a board and it is such a California thing.  For those who haven't spent much time here, many people truly skateboard everywhere.  It's so popular that there are bike/skateboard paths on campus at San Diego State University and there are not only bike racks but skateboard racks outside my place of work.  It seemed like the right place to start.

Riding & Foot Selfie-ing

I'd spent probably a year playing with the board indoors.  We have a huge living room and long hallway, so I'd push around, knowing there were walls to stop me before I gained much momentum, even with the sloped floors.

On Monday, I decided to take the board out and skateboard to grab lunch across campus.  There are so few people on campus in the summer, and, like I mentioned, there's an actual bike & board path.  So I kick-pushed, slowly, across campus.  And realized how much skateboarding is like any other board sport.  And how much I love board sports.  They're so wonderfully challenging and comforting at the same time.

It's been over a week that I bring my board to work every day, ride from my far away parking spot every day.  I'm still bad at it, but I love to ride, and I'm getting better all the time.  Thankfully I've spent enough time on other boards, wheels, and blades that I know when to bail, and I'm too chicken to go down any steep inclines, so it's been a good week injury free.

I can't wait to be a poser Californian riding around campus, fighting for a campus path, searching for other board sports so I can keep riding in Massachusetts.  While I'm sad it took me so long, I'm pleased I didn't let a limited amount of time stop me from trying something I'd always wanted to do.  I hope to bring that attitude with me to Massachusetts too.

#33 - Do Yoga Every Day for 14 Days

I started 2015 with some intentions: to be more present, to prioritize my appreciation of the beautiful place where I live, and to reconnect with myself.  Perfectly timed, Mosaic yoga studio, about which I had heard so many wonderful things and happens to be just two blocks from my home, offered a Groupon deal.  I purchased the Groupon, invited others to join me, and started a true yoga practice.  I practiced yoga every day for 7 days, alternating between classes at Mosaic and practicing at home with videos.  2015 had a very rough start, and taking the time to dive into the moment and into myself each day brought me to a place of healing and resilience instead of dwelling in hurt and frustration.

When I first started practicing yoga with Campus Recreation at Northeastern Illinois University, I enjoyed the practice but was inconsistent in my attendance.  After that I would drop in classes at various studios but never stuck to anything.  Ever those 7 days in a row in 2015, I have been attending yoga at Mosaic, particularly Kevin Freiberg's Tuesday 7:15pm class.  I attended at least 31 yoga classes at Mosaic in 2015 and have attended at least 16 more so far this year.  The best way I can describe my visits to that space is that it feels like a combination of exercise, therapy, and church.  It's good for my body and good for my soul.  While there are moments of struggle in each class, there are also moments of realization, of strength, of learning, of awareness, of forgiveness.  

Six weeks before my departure, I ran out of pre-paid classes and knew I could not afford to pay full price since I have yet to start my full-time job.  Again, Mosaic heard my call and offered a Memorial Day discount package.  I was skeptical I would use all 10 classes, but if I even went once a week, the price would be worth it.  To encourage myself to use even more of the classes, to max out my time at Mosaic, I decided to practice yoga every day for 14 days.  It turned out to be 15 days with 6 classes at Mosaic and the other 9 days at home.  I made it to Kevin's class 3 weeks in a row and added a few new classes.  I particularly enjoyed John's slow, meditative yoga, which sounds relaxing but was instead particularly challenging in its slowness.  I'm sad I won't make it to anymore of John's classes in the remainder of my time here, but I do plan to go to Kevin's class one last time.  It's important enough to me that I've refused to make social plans that evening, my last Tuesday in town, unless it's after class.

As I am leaving San Diego, I am very sad to be leaving Mosaic.  But, like I told Sophie, my time at Mosaic taught me what I need -- in yoga and in other aspects of my life -- and I'm hopeful I will find another space to continue my practice. 

#16 - Submit a Piece of Writing for Publication

Oh, academic research.  You're so useful and important and sometimes engaging and also tedious and time consuming.  This one piece took way longer than anticipated... and I have 5 others in various stages of completion.  While 4 of those should have been simpler to produce in an article format because they're based on my dissertation, which is already written, this article got done first.  Why?  Because DeJuan Benford, my supervisor at San Diego State University, allowed me to set a goal for the year of submitting a piece of writing for publication, turn a work assignment into a full-blown research project, request assistance from one of our student leaders, and work on it at work periodically.

The original assignment was to gather sport club dues information to assist San Diego State's sport club teams in setting their team dues.  At the time, I was just starting to analyze my data for my dissertation, so I realized the value in turning information gathering into formal data collection for academic research.  At that point, I did not realize how stupidly tedious and time consuming data cleaning and formatting can be.  

After I had agreed to do the project, in a meeting with our Sport Club Executive Board, DeJuan asked the five student Sport Club Executive Board members if anyone would like to assist me with the project.  For some reason, Mark Slader volunteered.  Mark is great.  At the time, he was also in school full-time, president of his sport club team, Executive President of sport clubs, and studying for the MCAT.  Then he was signed with the San Diego Growlers, a professional team in the American Ultimate Disc League.  Plus probably some other things.  And the project was all voluntary... as in he wasn't getting paid.  So I hope some form of this research is accepted for publication so he at least gets a line on his resume out of it.

Me & King Mark

Instead of describing all the tedious steps, here's a quick summary:
IRB: me
Survey design: me
Survey testing: Mark & DeJuan
E-mail address collection: Mark & me
Survey distribution: me
Data cleaning: Mark & me
Literature review: me
Data analysis: me
Synthesis: Mark & me
Writing: me
Editing: Mark & me
Article submission: me

I actually find the literature review, data analysis, and writing to be interesting.  Data cleaning, however, is the worst.  It's one of three reasons I could never be a researcher.  (The first reason is that I'd be too lonely and the third is that I don't sit still well.)  I'm so thankful Mark helped with that part because I might not have made it to the end if I had to do all of on my own.

The article focuses on the increasingly costs of higher education, the demonstrated value of highly involved campus programs like sport clubs (particularly for low-income students who are also more likely to be members of populations already underrepresented in higher education), a summary of the findings about the variability of the costs and funding strategies in institutions, and an exploration of relationships between institutional characteristics and costs for participation in sport clubs.  I'm hopeful to further explore this topic because our findings have the potential to be useful to the profession and additional responses and validity would add to that.

So, I've now co-authored and submitted a piece of writing for publication.  I can't wait to do the next one... mostly because the data has already been cleaned and analyzed :)  I do hope to continue to do academic research, to always be working on a project, because it's really gratifying, at times fun, and so important to further the legitimacy of my profession and for informed decision making.  I'm also saying that knowing this article will likely come back with revisions (since it's the first article either of us has submitted), so maybe I'll feel differently after receiving that harsh academic feedback.

#13 - Eat at Hodad's

We stole this spot from some children.

When I first showed Jenn Hayes my list, she was like, I want to do these things.  The one she was most emphatic about was going to eat at Hodad's.  Other people had offered to do that one, but their heart wasn't in it like hers.

Thumbs up.

When I got my job offer, I texted Jenn telling her we needed to go get Hodad's or drinks soon.  She only saw the Hodad's part.  Fortunately, the evening we picked, she was already with Corry Vogel, so the gang got back together again once last time.

I really thought the line would be terrible and long.  It looked like when I got there, but the 3 of us have entertained each other through really tedious office work, so I figured that line was no match for us.  Then it took less than 10 minutes, so I was almost disappointed that we didn't even have time for weird conversations.  

I love the lisence plate game.

I got the Blue Jay burger and they both got mini burgers.  Jenn & I both got baskets and Corry meant to, but it's a good thing we didn't because there were SO MANY FRIES.  The food was great.  The company was better.  I know this post should be more about this legendary burger joint, but I'm just too sad thinking about it.  I wasn't emotionally prepared for any goodbyes yet, but Jenn was off to Hawaii the next day for a few weeks, so I wouldn't get to see her again before I leave.  So many adventures as well as so much boring office work that turned into so much fun we sometimes cried tears of joy.  And saying goodbye to that made me cry tears of sadness. Miss you already. #soulbread4lyfe #3rahims

#31 - Get a Full-time Job

I really missed city living, so as I was finishing my Ph.D., I focused my job search on Chicago, New York, DC, Boston, Philly, and San Francisco.  Working in higher education, the further advanced in the career path, the fewer positions there are at each university and thus in each city.  So while it might seem like searching in these six large cities would give me a big enough net, I think I only applied to three positions in those six cities.  I (begrudingly) applied to 20+ positions outside of those cities.

(Quick pause: Yes, I understand San Diego is technically a big city.  But it doesn't have the big city
feel.  It's not quite "urban."  Even downtown is flooded with tourists who have heard how cool the Gaslamp District is.  It's not that cool.  San Diego is great.  It is.  I get to surf, play beach volleyball, sail, and wakeboard year round.  I cannot tell you the last time I checked the weather before deciding what to wear.  It's all kinds of beautiful.  The beach.  The mountains.  The desert. The sunsets.  I mean... damn.  But I miss public transit and walking between neighborhoods and world class museums, art, performance and music.)

Alan and Jesse met me for pre-interview dinner.
Yay friendship!

During the application process, I rested my hopes of moving back to an urban area on two faculty positions and one collegiate recreation position.  While the faculty positions seemed great, throughout my search process, my heart has stayed in collegiate recreation, specifically student development.  I'm still a little in awe of that the perfect position for me actually worked out.  I'm the new Assistant Director of Training and Development at Northeastern University in Boston.  (Not to be confused with Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, which was my previous full-time employer.  Just like University of San Diego, my doctoral institution, is not to be confused with San Diego State University, my part-time employer while I finished my Ph.D.  Maybe good things come in confusingly named pairs for me.)  In the position I get to supervise the student facility staff, which will be a great complement to my programming experience, as well as collaborate with all staff, professional and student, for a department-wide student development plan.  I literally get to take all of the leadership and organizational theories I studied in my doctoral program, collaborate with colleagues and students, and work in collegiate recreation to promote learning and community.  I am so excited for this next step.