It never ceases to amaze me how the foundational stuff comes together just in time. Life will through you all manner of curve balls, of course, but if you know what needs to get done and know how long you’ve got to do it, you can can usually get it in. Maybe it’s a touch or a feel or just an overdoing it. Anyway, here, just four days before classes begin, I can see the path to the finish line, which is actually the starting line.
And if that starts to sound like I’m re-trodding the same trodden land, you’re probably right.
I’m not sure what I’ve done that hasn’t been done or re-done. I do know what is left to do.
Anyway, this afternoon I compiled master sheets for departmental social media, which is a role I was recently asked to take on. Two of my colleagues had the job, and they supervised a student who ran the socials. My colleagues are extremely busy, and this took something off their plate, and I’m happy to help. So I learned over the summer that the department’s social media began with a real go-getter student. But she graduated. The nerve. We have another student running the bulk of the content creation now, but she graduates this December.
And this is where I draw on my 15 years of student media. The first task is to build institutional history. So master sheets. All the passwords. Baseline analytics. Consistent messaging. The second task is my learning from the student we have working on this project right now. And then we’ll have to hire a new one, because students graduate.
The nerve.
Yesterday, I talked with the chair briefly about what we want out of this role. It was enough to let us know we should talk at a bit more length about it. Today, I had a meeting with someone in the alumni office about their social media efforts, because we think that one of our secondary audiences might be our alumni.
Then I wrote a bunch of emails. And then updated my syllabi with last minute YOU MUST INCLUDE info.
And then I wrote and rewrote and rewrote again my first message for my online class.
Tomorrow I’ll polish some things in my in-person classes — which will be the sort of thing I do all weekend. I’ll also have to update my PowerPoint templates because in today’s meeting I learned that a logo we’ve been using since August 1st is now obsolete. And this is where you become aware that the re-trodding is really just your tripping all over yourself.
There are many delightful seasons that come to you when you linger around a hydrangea. The budding and the burst of leaves are the first. Then, of course there are all of the moments surrounding the flowering petals. Ours are white, and they’re brilliant in their moment. One of the two troubling stories a hydrangea will tell is when the rains come. Ours grow so big that they held more water than they can shed. The weight bends the branches bend over and that’s the way they’ll stay, even if they eventually do dry out. It’s a lasting story. But it yields to this surprisingly lovely one.
The Yankee cut some of the flowering stems. Watching the delicate ways the colors change is an unexpected treat.
And I guess those colors are a theme. Because look at this accidental photo I took. I don’t even know when it happened. What do you suppose is out of focus here? What’s that different color in the bottom corner? And is this even oriented correctly?
We enjoyed some local corn this evening. Fresh off the stalk, fresh off the farm, fresh off the grill.
We have three months that make for real seasonal change, and we’ll, very soon, be in one of them. When we reconvene on Monday it’ll somehow be September. Who is ready for that?
If you, like me, aren’t ready for that, don’t miss a moment of the weekend.
Ehhh, that’s good advice every weekend.
