Moving on and growing up...

college is over. still interested in what's going on in my life? head on over to

...the chance to find yourself...

Thanks!

-Vickie

And so it begins...

I took this picture in hopes that it would be a "before" and there would be a very clean room for an "after." That didn't happen. My room WAS clean for about a day, but not clean enough to warrant an "after" picture, and now that I've started the packing process, it's a disaster zone again.

People who have ever visited my childhood rooms will say that this is usually how my room looks, (in fact, I'm pretty sure my room at Mom's still looks like this) but since I've gotten to college and started spending a substantial amount of time in one room, I've learned to keep it clean. Therefore, believe it or not, this disgusts me. A messy room means chaos in life, and I hate that. This time around though, I left it messy for different reasons.

Mostly, because I'm still in denial about the fact that I will be leaving this place for good in less than a week. I knew that cleaning meant that I would have to start packing, so I just let the mess continue to pile. The only real reason I cleaned it to begin with was because I couldn't find my car keys. As a nursing student, I know that denial is not an effective coping mechanism, and for a while, I didn't really seem to care.

But, as I was laying (lying? still don't know that one) in bed last weekend, I realized that the best thing to do was to face the facts and get on with life. I could make the most out of my final days here while simulatneously preparing for my departure, since it was going to happen regardless of if I was ready.

So I cleaned my room. And I purged my closet. And I took four full bags of stuff to the Salvation Army truck on campus. And I started packing. And I went to Duffy's for the Senior Brat Fry and took a thousand pictures and celebrated with my friends.

Effective coping? Guess I really am an adult.

RE: tour tomorrow

Slowly but surely, I’m deleting lines from my email signature… and handing over responsibilities. Amy led our last SNA meeting of the year, and I’m sure she’ll do a great job next year. Tomorrow we celebrate as officers with breakfast compliments of our advisor, Prof. O. I spent Thursday night training sharing the secrets of being a great tour manager (basically just organization) with Susan, who we’ve been grooming all year to be my replacement. I spent all day Saturday crafting cool awards to give my top tour guides today at our AIA end of the year party. I just finished a “how-to” guide for next year’s Admitted Student Day coordinator, and will join my fellow VOV committee members for dinner at El Salto tomorrow night.

Right now, I’m sitting in the admission office all by myself (yes, on a Sunday night), trying not to get nostalgic. This has been my second home for the last two years, and many of my best friendships were formed within these walls. I can only hope that soon I will again get to work with great people who love their jobs this much.

Two weeks from today I’ll be a college graduate. “I’m Vickie Chambers, tour manager and a senior nursing major from the great state of Oregon” will turn into “I’m Vickie Chambers, and I’ll be your nurse today.”

Ready or not?