Columbia University!

My first day as a staff member at Columbia University is officially complete! Everyone asks how the day was: it was great!! I would also like the thank the following people for their well wishes on remembering my first day at the new job: Mom, Pops, Chrishon, Jayna, Emilie, Adam, and Kathleen...... and I HAVE to give a RIDICULOUS THANK YOU!! to Ronnie for a RIDICULOUS good luck email. Please read below:

KRISTIN KELLEY,

CONGRATULATIONS on YOUR FIRST DAY AT COLUMBIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy and excited for you, and you are going to be a phenomenal success here!!! I am SO ridiculously JEALOUS of you and you are going to break right through the sky and smash into the stars and fall like a glittering beacon of light broken of a unicorn's prism-esque horn.

I hope you have a fabulous first day, and TELL ME EVERYTHING SOON!

BTW, who are you crushing on right now? You know it was bound to happen already in the 3 hours you started.

LOVE,
RONNIE

If that's not the perfect way to start the day, what is?!

The main thing that was difficult to accept was how CALM the place was. Coming from Embassy, summer is our busiest season, tenfold from any other time of year, so it is incredibly stressful, high paced, high-demand, and borderline chaotic. Switching jobs in the middle of that I realized I was subconsciously expecting to have to jump into another job with that structure, but without knowing anyone or the job quite so much. Going to a university in summertime is just a sweet, sweet soothing calm. My body felt tense and ready to work and move constantly, but no one was demanding it, so it was incredibly bizarre to be so relaxed!!

The people I met so far are great, and I've only met 5 or 6! Apparently a lot of the department was on vacation but coming back tomorrow. One of the student workers' name is Lion, no joke. Every Tuesday morning there is a staff meeting, so I will be introduced and meeting everyone then. Today was a lot of logistics still. Turning in documents to the I-9 processing center, getting my staff ID, getting my internet and Columbia accounts set up, going over manuals, etc etc. It was very low key, but it feels so great to work for an Ivy League school!! I feel at home again in academia and working in student affairs, it brings me back to my college days of working at Student Health Services.

After work I actually walked home down Broadway in perfect sunshiney weather. I stopped into the Columbia University bookstore and couldn't resist buying a coffee mug (what can I say? I collect them) and a shirt.



When I had visited Yale University I bought a shot glass because universities are just fun (and I could use a shot glass or two!) but it is so much more exciting to buy paraphernalia from a university I support and that supports me (literally)!

It is hard to wean myself away from my friends, my coworkers at Embassy. At lunch break I felt so absolutely lonely and homesick for Jayna and Jenny I actually thought I was going to cry, so I had to go take a walk to get outside. It's a transition. Now that the worst is over and I am easing into the job, I focus on moving my apartment... godspeed to me.