Coffee, Coffee, Coffee: Finding Warm Comfort During Finals

Earlier this week, I found myself attempting to count sheep and invite sleep at 3:00am with no luck.  I was exhausted, but my eyes wouldn’t stay shut, and my brain simply wouldn’t turn off.  Finals and projects and papers and homework and assignment after assignment danced behind by closed eyelids.  As I continuously tried to slip into dreamland to prepare for my early morning internship, I found myself craving a good cup of coffee.  Strange, I thought, that I would be craving something to keep me awake as I was falling asleep.  After another few minutes of pondering, I realized that it wasn’t caffeine that I was craving, it was the comfort of a warm, familiar beverage at a time of stress and anxiety.  I eventually fell asleep and enjoyed my cup o’ joe in the morning.

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Continuing with this coffee theme, yesterday at my internship there were a variety of new faces and protocols coming at me from left and right.  I felt overwhelmed and stressed (likely brought on from dehydration, exhaustion, and a plethora of other factors that seem to plague me in these dark days), and I once again felt myself craving coffee, a comfy chair, and a warm blanket.  Like a ray of sun shining through my cloudy, anxious morning, I was then literally sent on an office coffee run for the first time in my intern career, and I won’t lie, my triple shot latte made me feel warm, fuzzy, and wired.

These types of comfort cravings have been happening a lot lately. I find myself thinking about warm places, blankets, and other aspects of comfort constantly. With finals just around the corner, and final projects and papers and everything in between popping up every hour, a little bit of comfort is all my body seems to want, need, and crave.  Because instilling in myself a sense of comfort can often come from something as simple as a cup of coffee or tea or a blanket, I’ve been really trying this finals season to give myself the security that I’ve been craving.

And with that, I reach my big point of this post. We spend so much of the semester and our academic year being uncomfortable.  Our ideas are constantly challenged, we are academically pushed, and we can even be socially strained at times. I do believe that we are all the stronger because of these things, but it doesn’t mean that we are invincible.  In a space where we are so stressed and overwhelmed, the small moments of undeluded comfort are things that we should take, cherish, and enjoy.  Self-care and mental and emotional health are so important always, but finals week is typically when they start to go down the drain.  As the lack of sleep and the heightened feelings of anxiety and stress kick in, we tend to go into survival mode, but survival mode needn’t be wholly terrible.  This finals week, I know that you’re already being challenged so much, but still I challenge you to find comfort in the little things. Find comfort in the things that make you happy, find comfort in the things that bring you joy, and take that comfort and turn it in to hard work and passion, and finish the semester on a high note.

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Here’s to a productive and proactive finals season, and I wish you all the best of luck.  Have a good cup of coffee under a blanket for me!

Don’t Know What To Do With Your Life? Get Some Coffee First

Remember those distant years when dinosaurs were roaming the earth and you were writing college essays and were about to make one of the biggest decisions about where to spend the next four years of your life? Well…maybe the timing doesn’t quite check out, but applying to schools while still being in high school does sound quite archaic.

I will never forget applying to schools and having to articulate what I wanted to study or what I am academically interested in, because when coming to college I was interested in everything. It was a bit overwhelming when I would have to choose what I wanted to do with my life, because pretty much everything sounded interesting. I learned to accept the fact that not knowing what to pursue in this precise moment was okay and that having a lot of interests was a good problem to have…but that took quite a while to happen. So after going through that fun and slightly terrifying process, what do I recommend someone to do in the same shoes? Well its obvious isn’t it? Drink some coffee.

apparently-i-have-had-too-much-coffee

No explanation needed here, meow!

Now I mean this in both a literal and metaphorical way. So yes, if you so desire go to the Motley and feast your eyes on the best coffee shop menu of all time (not like I’m biased or anything) then just sit down on one of the comfy sofas and enjoy your life.

But I also mean going to the coffee shop, looking at the menu, and weighing your options in a metaphorical way. (If you forgot that I love metaphors, well now you know 😉 But think about it, you walk into the Motley and one of the first things your eyes are looking at is all the possible drink combinations. Drinks can come with various pumps of flavoring, or they can be blended, smoothies, hot, spiced, you name it! All of these drink options are a lot like your various options of study. And the best solution to dealing with this dilemma? Spend all your flex and try all the drinks with various combinations, toppings, pumps, and special flavors. Wohooo!

When presented with the fortunate option of having many academic paths in front of you, you might as well try all of them that interest you! Don’t be afraid to dip your foot in the waters of unknown academic adventures, it might just be your new favorite subject. So try that random class that you think sounds cool, get the mocha you’ve been craving all day, and trust that your willingness to try new things will work out!

Enjoy your caffeinated journey to academic happiness folks!

Isabella

Event Planning for New Kids

Remember my notebook/journal from a few posts back? I was flipping through it this week trying to come up with a blog idea, and I realized I have a lot of notes on event planning. Three of the four full-time staff have been working in government for decades. They have also helped officials get elected–from local representatives to state secretary positions to U.S. representatives to Congress. I have very, very little event planning experience, so I feel like a new world is opened up to me every event-planning meeting we have. And of course I take notes.

So here’s my newbie advice for good event-planning, straight from my notebook!

For any event.
1. Sign-in sheets, sign-in sheets, sign-in sheets. I cannot stress the importance of sign-in sheets enough. They give you a concrete record of who was there plus basic information so that you can get in touch with them again. We ask for name, organization, address, phone number, and email. Besides sending follow-up thank you notes to everyone who attended, we keep the lists so that we can send out invitations for future events and relevant information. These are seriously so important.

2. If there’s going to be free time, take advantage of it. Even though we’re there as a group, we try to split ourselves up during free time at events (e.g. lunch or a coffee break) so that we can talk to more people. If someone is sitting alone, join them. Try to talk to constituents and local leaders as much as you can. Take the free time to get to know locals who are invested in the topics of the day, rather than the higher-up officials whose interests are already better protected.

3. Make sure someone is taking careful notes and transcribing the event. At the event our office put on earlier this summer, we had a camera rolling the entire time, someone taking general notes on what happened, and someone going around and taking down the names of every person in the crowd who made a comment (since they were already on our sign-in sheets it was pretty easy to match the person to the contact info). After the event, the other interns and I watched segments of the film and took careful notes on everything that was said, and highlighted consistencies across everyone’s comments. Having a recording will also help compensate for human error in note taking and make sure nothing gets missed.

For panel/town hall-type events, where you have officials at the front speaking and answering questions from the crowd:
1. Don’t put too many people up there. It may be tempting to get as many bodies on the stage as possible, but it’s unlikely that the crowd is going to remember all their names (and people might not be able to read their name placards), so keep the number as small as possible.

2. Defer to the locals. Even when you have very high-profile officials up there, make sure that local officials and constituents in the crowd get to make their voices heard. Town Hall-type panel events happen so that officials can hear what’s troubling people straight from their own mouths. Make sure the event is set up so that people can actually say what’s on their minds.

3. Make promises you can keep. If you can’t answer a question, tell the asker that you will get back to them within a reasonable amount of time. Give a number. “I don’t know the answer to that right now/I don’t have a solution for that issue right now/I don’t have resources with me today, but I/a staffer/a colleague in the crowd will take down your information and be sure to get that to you within two weeks/30 days/90 days/etc.” This will keep people from getting frustrated when you don’t know, and it will reassure them that you’re not trying to blow them off when you can’t answer a question.

Attitude is important.

For events planned by another group:
1. Troubleshoot. If another group is putting on an event in which you play an important role at the event itself, plan ahead in case something goes wrong. Besides helping the event run smoothly, this will help prevent you from looking bad or losing out because someone else messed up. We had a meeting this week about an upcoming event at which my boss is a speaker and a panelist, and most of what we did was plan to fill any gaps the planners might miss. We’re likely going to bring our own name placards in case they forget, and one of my coworkers mentioned that we might want to be ready to make coffee for people if they don’t have any there (I don’t know if it’s like this everywhere, but at least where I am, people drink coffee constantly).

If you don't do it like this you're doing it wrong. If you use creamer you're also doing it wrong.

If you don’t do it like this you’re doing it wrong. If you use creamer you’re also doing it wrong.

We’re also bringing our own sign-in sheets in case they don’t have any. If they bring their own, one of my coworkers is charged with watching those sheets like a hawk to make sure we get copies before the end of the event. Did I mention sign-in sheets are important?

2. Get there early and stay late. The event coming up starts at 11. We’re going to have someone from our office there from 8 a.m. till the very end when almost everyone has left. They want to be there early and late to get a feel for the players in the room so that we can better understand the implicit implications of what goes on during the day, and so that my boss can be present at important conversations even when she’s not there or is up on stage. Being there early can also help with troubleshooting problems and give you time to address the problems you identify.

Putting on (and attending!) events is hard work, but, as with anything, going in with a plan makes everything a lot easier. Got any advice for me, seasoned event planners? I’d love to hear from you!