"Planes, Trains, & Automobiles:" Simpson Style

Monday: Fly to Chicago, drive 45 minutes to check in @ hotel, change clothes, drive 45 minutes to Homewood-Flossmoor High school for 2 hour college fair, drive 45 minutes back to hotel…
Tuesday: Drive an hour & 15 minutes in rush hour traffic to Aurora, work 2 college fairs from 8-11:30am, drive hour back to hotel…
Wednesday: Drive hour & a 1/2 in rush hour traffic to Chicago airport, fly to Omaha, pick up my car in Treynor, drive 5 & a 1/ 2 hours to Minneapolis…
Thursday: Pick up rental van @ Minneapolis Airport, drive ½ hour to pick up student @ home, drive to hotel to pick up 6 other prospective students, drive to next meeting place to pick up 5 more students, drive 4 hours to Simpson campus for Minnesota Van Trip, have pizza dinner with students & overnight hosts, drive 1/2 hour to my parents' house to stay…
Friday: Work in office 8-2:30pm, drive 4 hours back to Minneapolis with my 12 Van Trip students, drive to Minneapolis airport, drop off rental van, head to airport gate to catch a 9:00pm flight to Chicago, arrive in Chicago around 10:10pm, take shuttle to Avis rental car, stand in line of 50 customers for hour & a 1/2 to pick up car, drive 1/2 hour to hotel, arriving at 12:45AM…
Saturday: Drive hour & 1/2 in construction traffic to downtown Chicago for college fair from 10-2:00, drive hour & 1/2 after getting on the wrong interestate back to hotel…
Sunday: Drive hour & 1/2 to Milwaukee for college fair from 12-3:30, drive hour & a 1/2 back down to Chicago area hotel…
Monday: Drive 45 minutes to Chicago airport to catch 11:00 flight only to find that I booked it on the wrong Monday (the 29th instead of 22nd!), sit in airport till 2:30 for next flight to Minneapolis, leave Minneapolis around 4:30 to drive 5 ½ hours HOME, with a brief break eating with the ‘rents in Des Moines…

Good enough excuse why I haven’t blogged much in the past couple weeks?! Ha. In between all of that, I managed to write notes to students, call students, do other busy work, oh yeah… & eat, sleep & shower! :)

If you wondered if it was possible to be in Chicago, Omaha, Des Moines & Minneapolis all within 12 hours, it is…I did it twice in the last week! I had college fairs in Chicago, then had to fly to Omaha, wash a load of clothes & pick up my car, drive through Des Moines to get up to Minneapolis for my Minnesota Van Trip the following day. My back seat was a makeshift dryer, as I didn’t have time to completely dry my load of clothes, laying a few of them along the back seat & window – LOL! Thankfully my trip was broken up by a nice Godfather’s dinner with my brother & sister-in-law who I met in Hampton on the way up & a Fazoli's dinner with my parents on the way back down. It was good to see some familiar faces!

My Minnesota Van Trip was a huge success in my eyes & I’m grateful for all the help I got by the other “driver”/admissions counselor, Cassie, the 12 outstanding current Simpson students who hosted my prospective students & our hardworking campus visit coordinator, Debra! I’m so blessed to have the world’s best student ambassadors working for us, as well as awesome Admission staff who all help me tremendously while I’m gone so much! They all helped make it possible for the students to have such good visits to campus. Some students got a feel for dorm life & others spent the night discovering Greek Life. On Friday, they all attended various classes of their interest, met with professors & coaches and ate lunch with athletes or student ambassadors. It worked out so well this year (at most I've had 6 students on the Van Trips), because I decided to schedule it during Minnesota’s MEA Days in which they don’t have school all week due to teacher in-services. It’s a great opportunity for them to get to know campus on a closer level, meet other students considering Simpson & visit campus without their parents; all transportation & costs covered. Often times it is hard for parents to take off work or spend the money to have their child visit, so it’s very convenient! All the parents & students were very appreciative. I am hosting my first Nebraska Van Trip in February, as well as a Spring Minnesota Van Trip in April. I have a lot of fun getting to know the students…after all, we are together in a van for 8 hours total! :)

The Chicago & Milwaukee National Fairs were pretty good – I saw a lot of minority students & many of them were strong students; most likely qualifying for our George Washington Carver Fellowship or Scholarship! It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day yesterday, so I walked around the Milwaukee shoreline of Lake Michigan for awhile. It was nice & much needed to step “away” from it all…

For lunch today, I did something pretty darn embarrassing…spilled my pop all over the bartender!! No, I was not “drinking”…I often sit at the bar since I’m by myself & I don’t have to stand in line. I felt terrible!

I wished I could have been @ the Storm football game vs. Cornell this past Saturday since we won big, 38-6 under the lights. I love night football games & in college, they rarely play them. Anyway, I’m so glad they won!

You know what’s even cooler than their success on the field?!
The Storm Football Team is teaming up with folks from the area in an effort to help raise awareness about hunger in Warren County. All football teams in Warren County are holding their own individual drives and our Storm collected food from October 1-6th. It was called “Helmets for Hunger.”

Also, during my travels...other than crossword puzzles & browsing the crazy SkyMall products I've been reading an incredibly powerful & eye-opening book called, "The Freedom Writers Diary." This is the true story that sparked one of my favorite movies, The Freedom Writers. I have learned so much about this 'American war' from the simple words of students who grew up in the middle of it & constantly belittled by their family & many teachers. Their high school English teacher, Ms. Gruwell changed their lives with her compassionate, creative teaching strategies. She is an inspiration to me, as I have always been a big advocate for public education reform, tolerance & acceptance, and aproaching each individual student with the understanding that each learns differently, as well as has the potential which must be nurtured & guided rather than simply told to them... To read more about this wonderful story, visit The Freedom Writers Foundation.

And, I leave you today with this...

Ms. Gruwell asked this question after her students read the following poem by one of her college classmates, "If you could live an eternity and not change a thing or exist for the blink of an eye and alter everything, what would you choose?:

Moment

Let him wish his life

For the sorrows of a stone

Never knowing the first thread

Of these

Never knowing the pain of ice

As its crystals slowly grow

Needles pressing in on the heart

To live forever

And never feel a thing

To wait a million lifetimes

Only to erode and become sand

Wish not for the stone

But for the fire

Last only moments

But change everything

Oh to be lightning

To exist for less than a moment

Yet in that moment

To expose the world to every open eye

Oh to be thunder

To clap and ring

To rumble into memories

Minds and spines

To chill the soul and shake the very ground

Pounding even the sand

Into smaller pieces

Or the mountain

Brooding, extinct

Yet gathering for one fatal moment

The power to blow the top clean off the world

Oh to last the blink of an eye and leave nothing

But nothing unmoved behind you

- Vincent Guilliano

January 9, 1991