This year I have made it a goal this year to attend conferences!

I am attending two thus far, NRAP and PACURH this fall. I also just found out today I will be presenting at PACURH, my presentation is “Staying Positive Through the Turbulence” if you’d like to see me. I will be posting some conference related material in the next month and some door tags and decoration ideas. 

Today was an amazing experience. This is something I will remember for the rest of my life -- and this is something that will be a moment in my college memories. 

I gave the Keynote Speech at NRAP 2013 (Northern RAP which is an RA Conference for NorCal Universities and Colleges). I was so nervous before I got up on stage, all I could think was if the President wanted to cry the first time he gave a speech because he was so nervous. But then I remembered the wisdom of my grandfather, "The audience doesn't know what you're about to say... so just keep going." Very true statement -- my speech was a success! 

It was overwhelming to stand in front of 300 people and tell them about my college experience. I haven't had a perfect college experience, and becoming an RA wasn't an easy task. I was so nervous. But.... once I got up there and started talking it just started spilling out, and before I knew it I had said what I needed to say. 

I had people laugh, I had people applaud.... and afterwards I had people congratulating me, or telling me that they related to my speech. It was an amazing day. When people would come up to say "congratulations" or "thank you" -- I definitely felt connected to these fellow RAs on a whole different level.