Winter Break: a time to celebrate the holidays, hang out with family and friends, and most importantly, catch up on sleep. I am proud to the announce that for the first time in about two years, I was actually able to do those things! As someone who has held Executive Board positions from their sophomore year onward, it was quite liberating to not have any sort of budget to create or flyer to craft over the break. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my positions and enjoyed the collaboration I got to lead among my peers, but it was so nice to actually relax this holiday season. I do have to admit, however, that there was an overwhelming sense of boredom that came with not having a position anymore that my Netflix binge of Stranger Things could not completely satisfy.
Mainly, there was the habit of having a constant to do list that currently leaves me at a loss. In semesters past, I would have my school to-do list, personal to-do list, position to-do list, and then intermingle all three for tasks across a given day. What used to fill up page after page in my Moleskine now is lucky to reach halfway through a page in a week. The concept of free time has been rather non-existent in my life and I have been confused what to do with it. Especially since, as a Stevens student, it’s rather unsettling to guiltlessly watch HGTV till who knows when and perform other “couch potato-y” acts. While on my eboards, I had to make use of every spare moment I had in order to still have a decent social life and get a good night’s sleep. Now, I have all the time in the world, and quite honestly I am less productive because of it. It reminds me of when I first came to Stevens trying to determine what to do with my free time (spoiler alert: I took a lot of naps) which is an odd state to be in during my last semester here.
Another part of my transition back to “normal member” was probably one of hardest acceptances I had to make with myself: I have full trust in those who I transitioned my positions to. I never doubted their abilities to excel in the position at hand but I might have doubted my transition to them for their ultimate success. At first, I would have moments of “Oh no, I didn’t tell them about this!” or doubts of “Did I do a good job at explaining that?” It created mild anxiety within me because I would never want to set someone up for confusion and/or failure. The most important thing I remember is, and perhaps other seniors in the current state I am in can too, that I am still here. Even though I am only on campus for one more semester I have Facebook, a cellphone, heck, even a mailbox (dated technology, I know), which are all great tools for communication. It’s important to remain available but idealistically, that will not happen. Eventually position members figure it out with or without you, but the proper tools are there if people so chose. There’s really nothing to worry about.
To all my second-semester-senior-former-eboard-members-of-Stevens homies, we’re going to be okay. We have more time now because we worked our butts off previously. Our organizations picked the best option for the future of the position because we paved the path for them to continue. It’s truly time to sit back, help your peers out if they need it, and relax, no matter how hard that will be. The transition back to normal member will vary person to person, but the time to really enjoy senior year is upon us and we all need to take advantage of it.
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