Opportunities

Hi!

This past weekend was pretty long and definitely different than the normal weekend at Bluffton. We had the opportunity to participate in conflict mediation training here on campus and I was urged to participate in it by the director of residence life since I am a Hall Director. I knew that it would be really valuable for me to go through the training, but I will admit that I was not looking forward to it since it was a little over 20 hours of training over the weekend. It was 4 hours on Friday night, 10 hours on Saturday, and 8 hours on Sunday... phew! I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was excited because I have been through some similar training in the past and had a lot of fun with it. Luckily three of my really close friends were in the training too, so we knew that we could get through the crazy weekend together! It was a lot of information really fast, but it was exciting at the same time. Bluffton is working to help with restorative justice across the surrounding communities and it was nice to learn some of the tactics used to facilitate mediation among people in conflict. The trainers came from Pennsylvania and are very well versed in performing these mediations and teaching on this topic, so it was great to have them there to share with us. There were times when it was really long, but the time went quickly overall and I am genuinely excited to have this knowledge under my belt. The weekend concluded with one of our professors coming and talking with us about how we could use this on campus and in the community as well as ways that we could alleviate tension and hardship on campus. It was great to have a casual, yet serious conversation with a professor and feel her heartfelt hope that she could hear our concerns and do something about our feelings. I am so thankful for opportunities like this on campus... I may never have been able to go through something like this if Bluffton hadn't made this available. Weekends like this one make me feel better prepared to face the real world that is approaching very quickly.

I'm also excited about the next couple of days... Scott and I are going to Indianapolis on Monday night thru Wednesday for a job fair and he has an interview. I am anxious to really get out there and see the job search happenning. I'm also very excited, though, to see my brother and sister and get to spend time with them and their families. I really miss them since I haven't seen them since Christmas, so I'm sure we'll have a good time.

I just feel very blessed by the opportunities I have.

Here's to those opportunities,

Mary

pic: me and Scott after we won FIRST PLACE in "the couples game" (so yeah, there was only one other couple in the game, but we were still proud!)