Conference Take 2 (Pt. 3)

To sum it all up, I got my networking on- majorly.

Friday I escorted my media peoples, donned the showgirl outfit, got into grad school, and caught up with my Chapman mentor Helen. Okay, so I didn't really get into grad school, but I had the chance to actually speak with the director and network and connect with her. I'm really excited about that. The students had the first business meeting where we presented bylaws revisions and took nominations for offices. I also gave my Student President report at the Professional Business meeting next door. It was great to give my report there as well. Many of the professionals gave me applause and a few came up to me throughout the weekend to meet me or a few even told me what an up and coming professional I was and to keep up the great work and what a future I am to have. Did that sentence make sense? That particular person is someone that I sort of know, but a person that I respect and have learned about.

The best part of all of that was that I could take the positive feedback and compliments and just say "Thank you very much" or "Thank you, its been quite a year." kind of thing. Yay me! I'm generalizing- taking my goals from my first quarter eval and applying them - My Supervising Therapist was happy to hear this. :)

I had more meetings and more networking. I felt on fire throughout the entire conference. I felt like the professionals were noticing me and congratulating me for the work that I've done. They complimented the student board, but a lot of them were addressing me. Not to say that I did it all myself. I could not have done anything without the support of everyone else. But it was nice to be recognized for the work that I know I put into being President.

Our last board meeting on Friday was hilarious. My friend who happens to be the First VP elect and I were sitting at the end of the table. I've known him since I've started at Chapman and I love him dearly. Its been such an wonderful experience to continue on the music therapy road with him. Anyhow- we were out of control. In fact, I think we all were. We were all tired and mouthing off even with the recorder going. The secretary is going to have fun transcribing that stuff. The most hilarious part of the meeting was towards the end, after everyone had put up with us at our end of the table, my friend and I found our presenter gifts. They are keychains- guitar keychains that have the circle that spins in the middle. Oh man. My friend and I were absolutely stimming on the spinny thingy at the end of the table- but it shut us up. Hmm maybe you had to be there. It was funny.

Saturday I had breakfast with a music therapy from SD that I had never really met before and the director from the masters program. Like I said- I was on fire. Majorly networking. I went to a few sessions. We had a luncheon in the afternoon with silent auction - where I was offered wigs if I moved to LAS and we had our student business meeting. Elections were held and Hallelujah! there is a new student board. I am excited and have been busy prepping things to turn over to the new board. The new president is a friend of mine and will do a great job. I was worried at first, worried that she was going to spread herself too thin... this job is tough. But she will be great. She said the nicest thing. Part of her little speech in running for President was to continue the work that the current board started and the goals that I had set for the year. I was a little weirded out by this at first. But my friend Lisa Rae explained it in this way: Success is when people take what you've done and strive to take it 2x further. So I guess my term was a success if the next president is wanting to take some of the things I enacted to the next level (x2)! Now I'm less weirded out and more flattered and touched.

After every evening I had the chance to hang with my best friend from Chapman, Casey. She just got married this past summer and is expecting her first baby. So first and foremost it was wonderful to spend some time with her. But I didn't hang out with my college friends as much as I thought I would. At the end of the day, I was happier hanging with the professionals on the board and getting to know them better, shooting the breeze, swapping stories, talking about MT, learning about the history of the region and some of the people in it. That was more fun for me at the end of the day. I learned a lot, especially from the Rachels, in particular in our after hours hangouts. That was probably my favorite part. They both get exactly where I am in totally different ways. I love that. I could bounce a lot of ideas off of them- especially at this point in my life where I am not quite sure where I am going to end up at the end of my internship. I have a ton of opportunities and I'm not certain as to which ones I will take and there will be more by the time I finish. Just gotta wait and see.

A lot of my friends wanted to go out and drink, to get to The Strip and I just wasn't there, not interested. I had more fun taking late night walks to the corner market (where Lillie and I made fools of ourselves Wednesday afternoon- and later were Rachel and I made a scene--- okay, where I made a scene) and picking up wine or some other beverages and taking them back to the Hotel or just walking to the HardRock because it was so close. I think definitely that my heart is still in the western region, but I took my new focus and intern identity there. Yeah. I feel all adult-y and grown up.