Hello, and happy Sunday to you all! This is a rather late edition of my recap for the past week. But hey, better late than never, am I right, or am I right? 😁
The past week was CRAZY busy, and full of self reflection with my role at work. I had the wondrous opportunity to see Twenty One Pilots in concert on Sunday night, and it was AMAZING—despite the fact that we didn’t get home until almost TWO in the morning. The venue was just shy of two hours’ drive away, and of naturally, post-concert exit from the parking area was fury-inducing. It was a clusterf***, in all sense of the word. Cars were trying to go in practically any direction, with no rhyme or reason. The volunteers did just a wonderful job guiding everyone to park before the concert, but were nowhere to be found after. It easily took about an hour or so to get out of the parking lot. Thankfully, past Terry had the foresight to request Monday off as well, and it was a good thing! 😆
Work has been ramping and shaping up to be complete chaos over the next 8 weeks or so, as a few of the departments within the school decided that they didn’t like where they were, and felt it was time to play musical chairs offices. While a handful of them are fairly small moves, most of them are in the ballpark of 20-something people here, 30-something people there. Sooooooo, it’s all hands on deck to make it happen.
Luckily, before any of these moves had been decided and finalized, I had managed to get four days off this coming week, and only having to work on Friday. I am definitely not complaining about it. 😏
This Got Me Thinking
This week, I’m heading to a conference in Southeastern Virginia, and I’ll be honest – I’ve spent just as much time thinking fretting about what to wear as I have about the networking piece. As fellow introverts are painfully aware, walking into rooms full of strangers takes real energy, and the pressure to “work the room” can feel overwhelming. But as I was laying out my outfits for the conference, I realized: I’m already being intentional about how I want to show up—at least in a physical sense, anyway.
In my work, I don’t try to tackle everything at once – I try to set clear objectives and prioritize what matters most (whether or not I’m successful at it is another issue entirely 😜).
So here’s my plan: I’m going for the content I care about, the sessions that genuinely interest me. If conversations happen naturally, great. If they don’t, that’s okay too. I’m giving myself permission to be selective, to sit in the quieter spaces, to not force connections that don’t feel organic. I’m relearning to embrace my quiet and softness. I’m perfectly happy to embrace the quiet and enjoy people-watching. Sometimes, you can learn quite a bit without even saying a word.
I’m going to curate my conference experience the same way I’m curating these outfits: selecting what feels right, what represents me well, what I can actually sustain. Sometimes showing up and being present – dressed in something that makes you feel like yourself – is enough.
Finally, here’s a look back at what I wore to work this past week. The coming week will be extremely sparse in outfits, as I’ll only be at work for one day. You know what? I’m good with that. 😉 Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and week ahead!
-Terry
October 7
October 9
October 10
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