Renee's Web Log: July 2006 Archives

BMOC

--Big Man On Campus

“Who will clean up all the extra dishes at potlucks and on grazing day?
Who will be willing to sit at the worlds tiniest desk in the front reception of a busy office dealing with endless repetitive questions, day after day after day?
Who will stand at the door of my office and say, ‘excuse me, Mel?...umm (pause)...please, I have a question...(pause)...umm (pause)...okay, the thing is...(insert question here)"
Who will smile at us regardless of how busy he is?”

--Melissa C.

This blog entry is dedicated to Lekan. He will spend a year studying in Singapore while earning credits towards his U of A degree. Lekan is a student intern working at the Registrar’s office. He has provided direct support to the International Admissions Unit and helped many of international students as they walk in to ask questions regarding their application and registration.

Lekan’s desk is next to mine in the office. In the past 2 months, Lekan, Lynn (working as receptionist), and I were the fantasy three in the office. We three have supported each other and developed a powerful triangle alliance to answer students’ questions when they walk into our office.

Also, I'd like to thank Lekan personally. I could not survive without his help for the first few days as I started to work at the RO. Thank you for those thoughtful attentions, endless support, top “secrets” emails, a Tim Horton coffee, a cheese bun, and a carrot cake.

Some people think Lekan looks like a R&B singer Sisqo, especially after he dyed his hair to red-orange. I guess he could fool people in Singapore there. They will ask for his autography.

This is a limited edition poster that Lekan will sign his signature on:

I will use a song from The Road to El Dorado to end up this blog entry.

“The same joy the same sadness each step of the way
That fought me and taught me that friends never say
Never say goodbye”

Lekan, good luck and best wishes! I will meet you somewhere around next corner. It’s a small world, so friends never say goodbye!

Posted by Renee at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Mid-term Job Review

When I first started the job at the Registrar’s Office, I thought OMG, almost half a year?! That long?

Guess what? There are only two months left. Like I said to my boss at the beginning, when I looked ahead at this journey in September, I will gain so much experience from it.

Ehhh, the things I learned from this job:

1.Time Management

During my three-year university experience, I have developed a particularly bad habit: “last-minute-work ethic!”. It’s not that I am being lazy. I marked all the deadlines on my calendar. I see all the upcoming deadlines before I go to sleep. But my philosophy was: I will do a much better job when it is close to the deadline. This bad habit has been slowly killing me.

My RO job has helped me to have a daily/weekly/monthly planner: when, where, how I will accomplish the tasks assigned by the supervisors. I should carry this new-developed habit along with the new term.

2. Different ways to say thank you without actually saying the word

When I first started the job, I was being an idiot asking people questions non-stop in the office. When people answered my questions or offered me help, I always said “thank you” or “thanks a million”. But I always felt that this was not enough to show appreciation for people’s kindness (they are all really, really busy) I found my own way to say thank you. When I go up stairs to pull students’ files for myself, I will check all the international admission advisors to see if they have any file needing to be pull. Or I sometimes buy treats (of course, Timbits), or offer to get coffee for them when I am going to Tim Horton.

3. Save Ass

· If I have any “not-too-sure” questions, I will always ask for instructions from the experts.
· I learned to do the back-ups for all the documents/reports that have been made.

· Always CC. Important emails to boss and co-workers.

· Never give other people students information unless they sign the agreement letter

· Always track the date, and time when it comes to documents receiving.

A Few Remarkable Moments:

Kattyna came to our office to say thank you (I didn’t do any thing. Helping her is my job). She gave me a small package of Chocolate by Ferrero. I shared with Lynn, and Lekan. She still sends me emails and says hi to me.

Nataliya didn’t know that the U of A offers CEAL exam. She thought she would miss the deadline. I referred her to take the exam. A few weeks later, she went to our office to tell me she had passed the exam. I was soooooo happy for her. She hugged me. (imagine: a 6 foot European gal hugged a 5 feet.2 inch tiny Asian gal !) I felt so blessed.

Bin got her admission. She sent her email to everybody in the office. She told me she is coming in July. Can’t wait to meet her in person!

…

Posted by Renee at 11:26 PM | Permalink

Managing the Daily Juggle

I have been sick lately. Imagine 3 courses, 2 jobs, and a family to take care of. People really should give me credits for playing juggle! And if this isn’t enough, in the past week, I had to get up at irregular hours to make phone calls to international students in Asia. Can you imagine? 3:30 AM?!! After all my suffering from sleep deprivation, I hope those students come to the U of A eventually. : )

I guess I was running out of energy by the end of the week. I kept thinking-when I could think straight-how could I keep working from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm at the Registrar’s Office each day and then go to work at the hospital from 4:30pm to 8:30pm? After traveling through a very painful decision-making process, I made up my mind to quit the job at the hospital.

After writing a letter of resignation, I could not help but cry: it was my very first job. I knew originally that for international students, it was especially difficult to get a job at the hospital. Therefore, I volunteered for almost 2 years at the hospital before I got the job. I washed dishes (I don’t even wash my own dishes at home!), picked up dirty trays, made lots friends (especially, got the opportunity to meet people whom I wouldn’t ever have otherwise met), had tears (got Gristle inflammation), and shared laughs with my co-workers. Like I wrote in my letter of resignation: “The experience during my employment here will truly be memorable for years to come.” It was a long journey for me to make to learn how hard it is to make money, how big the world is, and how important the patients are (no matter what, customers are always right).

When I handed-in the two-week notice letter to my supervisor, she seemed to go into shock and didn’t speak for awhile!. When I heard her say that she didn’t want me to leave, my vision became blurry. I told her if I could find time, I wouldn’t quit. She told me the department had just launched a shift from 5:00 pm to 8:30. Then she asked me would I stay if I got this shift. I said definitely I would since I would then have at least half an hour to travel from one work place to the other!

Sigh! I didn’t quit the job. So, after all that soul-searching, I still have one more ball than I can really manage in my hand to play juggle. Wish me luck!!

Posted by Renee at 11:23 PM | Permalink