Surprise Surprise!

DAY TWENTY-FIVE – Surprise! What surprised you in 2011? Did you do something unexpected? Or perhaps some life event/milestone snuck up on you? How did you handle it? How did it turn out?

The best surprise I got this year was when Michael didn’t tell me he was taking off of work and drove to Maryland to spend time with me on our 5 year anniversary.

I was teaching a summer course that day when he gave me a call. He asked what I was doing that day and then told me that he was 20 mins away.

This was an awesome surprise because I didn’t think he would have been able to take off of work (this was back when he was still relatively new at the job). He picked me up from campus, and then we spent the day watching Lost and getting yummy foods at the local diner.

Even though it was a pretty low-key day, the fact that we got to see each other on our special day was all that I needed. Five years is a long time to be with someone, so it definitely warranted some sort of celebration!

I wonder what surprise is in store for our six year anniversary…?

A wonderful surprise indeed!

The Greatest Gift This Year

DAY TWENTY-FOUR – Gift. This month, gifts and gift-giving can seem inescapable. What’s the most memorable gift, tangible or emotional, you received this year?

The most memorable gift that I received this year was the gift of time with my boyfriend, Michael.

As previously mentioned, we haven’t been able to see each other as much as we have in previous years. Since I’ve been busy with school and ballroom, and he’s been busy with work and band stuff, visits have been a little more sparse.

So when we do get to see each other, I consider it the greatest gift because every moment spent with Michael is great! Whether it’s going to the Silk City Diner for my birthday, taking a tour of Citizens Bank Park, or just cuddling on the couch watching TV, I treasure every moment spent with him.

Being in a long distance relationship is really hard, and takes a lot of work. But when you do finally get to see each other, and spend time together, those moments shared are priceless. You can’t get any better than sharing the gift of time together. And this year, I am incredibly thankful that I am blessed with that gift.

Performing: Me at its Core

DAY TWENTY-THREE – Core Story. What central story is at the core of you, and how do you share it with the world? (Bonus: Consider your reflections from this month. Look through them to discover a thread you may not have noticed until today.)

After reflecting on my posts so far, my core story is this:

I am a performer.

Here are the ways that I perform in my life and share my core story with the world. Let’s start with the obvious and work our way down:

I am a ballroom dancer. My newest type of performance, but something that I now can’t seem to live without. Ballroom dancing isn’t just about the technique and knowing the steps (though that certainly helps!). It’s about feeling the music, feeling connected to your partner, and selling your dancing. I’ve been told several times that couples have been called back despite mistakes because they were smiling the entire time. So you know that that means…jive face – ON!

I am a singer. No matter how much I love ballroom, this will never go away. Whether it’s singing karaoke in my basement with my parents, belting showtunes in the shower, or singing along to guitar strumming on roadtrips, I will always consider singing my #1 passion. Now if only I could sing and dance at the same time…?

I am a teacher. Ever since I started teaching back in 2008 I’ve always considered every lecture a performance. You think singing in front of a crowd is hard? Try keeping college students engaged at 8 in the morning! Over the years I’ve tried to make classes more interactive, by asking questions and including activities to keep students involved. Not only does it make things interesting all semester long, but it also helps with evaluations come end of the semester.

I am a scholar. With me planning on going on the job market this upcoming year, I need to bring my A-game on. Going on the job market can be considered a performance as well. I need to sell my research, sell my teaching, and demonstrate that I can be a colleague that others would want to work with for the next several years. This upcoming year will be all about prepping for the job market performance – I’m nervous, but I can’t wait.

I am a girlfriend. I must admit, I probably have not been performing this role as well as I should be lately. Michael and I haven’t seen each other as much as we usually do, now that I’ve found ballroom and he’s been busy on work trips and playing with his band. Now that I’m home for a couple of weeks I’m excited to spend some quality time with the man, reinforcing once more why we’ve worked these past 5.5 years.

I am a friend. I’m also trying to get this particular performance up to snuff, by contacting friends I haven’t seen in months. Last year I talked about how I am terrible at keeping in touch – and I must admit that this year hasn’t been any better. But I hope that soon enough I’ll catch up with old friends here in NJ and then come back to MD to pick up with my new friends. It’s an exciting year ahead in terms of friendships, that’s for sure!

And that’s my core story. I’m excited to see where it takes me in 2012.

Saving the Name of Scholarship

DAY TWENTY-TWO – Take a stand. In 2011, what wrongs (big or small) did you attempt to right? How did you help make the world a better place? Why did you do it?

This past summer, I taught a basic public relations writing course. I had a lot of fun with my students, teaching them about press releases, fact sheets, brochures, and the like.

For their final assignment, my students had to write a position paper related to their “client” that they chose.

I was sitting in a Barnes and Noble cafe, grading my students’ position papers, when I noticed that one of my students had a font style change throughout parts of the paper. I thought, “hmm, that’s funny, usually that happens when you copy and paste from somewhere.” I decided to investigate further and found out that my student had essentially plagiarized the entire thing.

I took matters into my own hands immediately and contacted the Office of Student Conduct. I wrote a letter reporting what I found, and waited to see what will happen next.

What happened next was that I had to go to a hearing where I sat side by side with the student, telling my side of the story. Though he denied he plagiarized, the panel of faculty and students found him guilty, and swift action was taken against him.

Though the hearing was probably one of the worst experiences by far this past semester, I knew that I had to do it so that justice would be served. I had to wrong this right. I felt that it was my responsibility as an instructor to not let this student get away with this punishable offense (might I add, this isn’t the first time he’s plagiarized either). I owed it to my other students in that course that actually did all of the work.

As much as I hope I’ll never have to go through that again, I’m sure sometime in my teaching career it’ll happen. But I’ve noticed that in the short time I’ve been teaching that I’ve gotten a tougher skin. I’m not letting things slide that I would’ve let slide 4 years ago. I’m not letting students get grades that they didn’t deserve. I feel that it is my integrity as an instructor to do what is right, saving the name of scholarship.

My Defining Moment

DAY TWENTY-ONE – Defining Moment. Describe a defining moment or series of events that has affected your life this year.

A defining moment, or moments, that affected my life this year was serving on the Public Relations Search Committee this past semester.

Why were these events so important? Mainly because I learned so much from being a part of the committee. As someone from the “inside,” I got to learn what sort of things are important in a job candidate, what are qualifications for someone going for a research 1 position, and what sort of things should/shouldn’t be said in a cover letter, CV, and job talk.

What’s more, seeing my colleagues go through the job market on the other side of the token gave me even more  perspective on what it takes to be the best candidate out there. I took notes upon notes in my notebook (speaking of which, I should really type those out, make a handout or something) which will be super helpful when I go out on the job market in 2012-2013.

Though it may not seem like that big of a deal to any other person, being on the search committee made a huge impact on me this semester. Special thanks to Drs. Liu, T. Parry-Giles, and Khamis for teaching me so much and giving me pointers, and thanks to my friends Abbey and Beth for sharing what they’ve learned. Hopefully come next year, I will be more than prepared and ready. Watch out PR academic world, here I come!!

The Pho Fiasco: An Extraordinary Ordinary Moment

DAY TWENTY – Ordinary Joy. Our most profound joy is often experienced during ordinary moments. What was one of your most joyful ordinary moments this year?

Sometimes the most ordinary moments can become extraordinary simply due to the extenuating circumstances, or who you are with.

The evening started ordinary enough. I had just walked out of happy hour with my ballroom partner Edd when we decided to get Pho for dinner. I have never had Pho, and Edd seems obsessed with it, so we decided to go grab some.

Edd drives us to Pho 75 along University Blvd. We park, walk in the establishment, and sit down. We get handed our menus, to which I gasp and say:

“Uh, they only take cash here?”

Ruh roh. Edd doesn’t have cash either, so we decide to leave the restaurant and head back toward campus to take out some money.

We do that, and then go back to Pho 75. We sit down again, get our menus again, and are greeted with:

“We close at 8:00.”

It’s 7:50. Damn. So we decide to get our Pho to go and manage to steal some Asian spoons and chopsticks along the way.

We head back to my Department’s building, and unpack all of the delicious Pho ingredients. Edd claims that it would be hard eating it in the current containers that the broth was in, so we found some random plastic buckets, washed them, and ate the Pho. Though it was extremely ghetto, the Pho was quite delicious, and despite a couple of set backs we managed to enjoy our meal.

What was even better was the conversation that come along with the Pho. Edd and I had fun partner bonding time, talking for several hours about friends, relationships, and life in general. It was nice to get to know someone that I’ve been dancing with for several weeks, on a deeper level.

In any case, an ordinary moment such as eating Pho turned out to be an unforgettable moment for me. I grew closer with someone that means a lot to me, and I hope that the Pho fiasco worked to strengthen our partnership. Who knows, maybe thanks to Pho we will win a ribbon come next semester.

Ballroom Partners!

My 2011 Snapshot

DAY NINETEEN – Photo. Sift through all the photos of you from the past year. Choose one that best captures you; either who you are, or who you strive to be. Find the shot of you that is worth a thousand words. Share the image, who shot it, where, and what it best reveals about you.

After going through my photos on Facebook, I decided to use this one to represent the past year.

This photo was taken by a very good friend, Jon Tongco, with his fancy camera. We are on the bus to Ohio for a ballroom competition.

I love this photo because it encapsulates what this trip and what ballroom in general has done for me this past semester. As you can see I’m laughing, and so smiley and happy. My wonderful dance partner, Edd Tsao, is in the foreground. And the movie Mulan is playing on a screen in the background, which is just perfect because it’s one of my all time fav Disney movies that we ended up singing and quoting the whole rest of the trip.

I think this photo reveals who I really am: a happy, positive, social person who loves having fun and loves being with people she cares about. If I could have this face on every day in 2012, I would think I have had a successful year.