Savoring Every Moment

I always tell prospective students and their parents that I want to go through my college years putting every penny in my rather large tuition bill to good use and over the past few weeks I have definitely done that! I attribute “success” in college not just to a good grade on a paper or an award of some kind, but rather to having experiences that shape you as a person and that profoundly move you. Over the past four years I have had numerous experiences like this but there are two I want to write about at length because they meant a lot to me in the past few weeks.

The first was Election Night, November 4, 2008. This was the first election I was able to vote in and I actually sent in an absentee ballot in Mid-October. Our campus is VERY politically active and since I literally live right next door to the leadership of the College Democrats on campus I knew that election night would be special. On Tuesday Nights, CAB usually runs the 10 Spot, a time between 10 and 12 when student musicians can take over Hogan basement and play music. For November 4th, CAB teamed up with the Student Government Association (SGA), College Democrats and College Republicans to turn the basement into a political center of the campus. There was music being played, in typical 10 Spot fashion, but there was also a large screen and projector with CNN running and a map on the wall which was colored in as the state’s results came in. In Crossroads (Hogan Basement), the tension grew with each state – cheers, boos, and excitement pouring in from all directions. By 10:00 there were probably 150 people down there and as Wolf Blitzer announced the projected winner I watched as the majority of students cheered and hugged, members of the College Democrats (many of whom had worked for two years with this campaign) burst into tears, and people from across campus poured in to the building to watch history, regardless of their political leanings. Everyone stayed through his speech; I called my parents twice almost in tears with just the enormous weight of the experience. As a history major, these are the moments I learn about and to actually be living it is something I can’t even describe. My dad kept saying “remember every second of this” and I know I will; I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here at Holy Cross in this moment of History and it’s just another “success” the college has brought me.

The second event took place last weekend; we sent the largest CAB delegation ever to the NACA (National Association for Campus Activities) Northeast Conference. This conference was for all the programming boards of North East colleges and it gave us the opportunity to see potential acts that we can bring here, talk to agents, then book acts at cheaper prices than normal. I had gone to this conference as a sophomore but I definitely got more out of it this time. I got to see “showcases” which included a harmonica playing rap artist, a hypnotist and a multitude of comedians; I got to attend marketplaces and (as treasurer of CAB) handle the booking of all the acts, talk to agents and get LOTS of free stuff. Most importantly for me though was the experience I got with the Educational Sessions, one of which I ran! Jimmy, Ben and I ran a session on “Mentoring Within Your Organization” and we had about 50 people who all seemed really interested in what we were talking about. In typical fashion with our personalities, Ben talked about the research that goes into mentoring, Jimmy talked about the structure and execution of mentoring within Holy Cross CAB and I talked about the personal touches and experiences associated with good mentoring practices. We got a lot of comments after we spoke and I definitely used some of the skills I have learned in my Rhetoric class this semester in my part of the presentation. CAB also saw some success in the NACA awards; our brand new website (http://college.holycross.edu/studentorgs/cab/) won “Best Student Designed Website in the Northeast” and Jimmy won one of only four Student Leadership Awards that were given out at the conference! It was very exciting and our presentations, awards and experiences will definitely work to cement CAB’s place on campus. I attached some pictures of the fun so everyone can see!

My next entry is going to be devoted to a much more trivial matter, but another “success” I hope…Senior Ball!!!!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 9:38 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.