I never really made a post (or any sort of comments, really) about Orientation Week 2011: To Victoria and Beyond, now that it's over and done with. In a few weeks, the new Orientation Co-Chairs will be picked, and that will be that; the 2011 Exec will officially be retired. I mean, we're basically done NOW, but technically the Exec aren't done as a team until the NEW team is in place, which starts with the new co-chair.
I guess a slight trip down a relatively fresh nostalgia lane is in order. As I just mentioned, O-Week starts and ends with the Co-Chair, in my opinion. I mean, yes, it's about the first years and always will be, but in terms of the planning, the Co-Chair is the person who starts the ball rolling. Evan, then, was the Co-Chair this year, and he was...well, great! Rachel, the Co-Chair before him in 2010 was also amazing, but Evan was awesome in a different way, I think, in the type of energy he brought to the table. Regardless, it was really great what he did for everyone. I do not agree with EVERYthing he did, of course, but I do think that he tried his best, and his best is pretty damn good, in my opinion.
I suppose that same kind of qualification can be extended towards the rest of the Exec team. I think they were all great, in their own ways, and everyone tried their best. I do not, of course, agree with everything that everyone did, as mistakes were made, as is want to happen in an operation as large as Orientation Week. Tempers sometimes flared, micromanaging occurred, and so did a host of other things. This did not make the week a bad one, not by any means. In any large group of opinionated individuals (myself being a part of this group), these things are bound to happen, and they did. What makes a group great is being able to deal with these changes on the fly, and being able to continue functioning happily and as a unit...and that's what everyone did. I truly believe that everyone tried as hard as they could, and that's what matters in the end. Of course, I have hindsight on my side, and I'm sure that less-than-charitable things were probably said about me (though, as the only person who had done Orientation Week as an Exec member before, other than Evan himself, I tried to be as helpful as possible) too, but the week was fun as an Exec.
The leaders were absolutely fantastic, and I've met people I will probably not soon forget, if ever. The week really does hinge on the enthusiasm and participation of the leaders, and they rose to that challenge beautifully. They were everything you could possibly ask for, and then they continued to excel as well, at literally anything you might have asked them to do. I honestly have nothing bad to say here, not even a little bit.
I'm not really looking for faults in this past Orientation experience, or at least, I'm not TRYING to. It's just that O-Week this past year was so awesome, I find it difficult to not just talk forever about all the awesome things that happened.
Now that I've done Exec twice, I suppose the only place to go from here is up - up to Co-Chair. I've wanted to do it for a while now, and within a few days, I'm hoping the applications for the upcoming year will be out. They've changed it, so that now there will be two student Co-Chairs, instead of just one. I've asked one of my best friends in the entire world to be my partner in this endeavour (really, there is only one other person I would ever ask to do this with me, who lives in North House [though...I guess she would rather move back home now, after we spoke a few days ago]. She wants to apply to be a residence don next year, and though she would be fantastic, I'm not sure if she's going to do that any more, haha), and I fully expect that we'll get it. I mean, not to sound arrogant, but I have two full years of Orientation Exec experience, almost three full years of VUSAC experience, not to mention the various clubs, associations and intramurals teams I've been a part of. My friend ALSO has Exec and VUSAC experience, has been a leader (a super leader, at that), and works for the Dean's Office. I don't REALLY think there's another pair that can beat us, but I suppose we'll see.
It's funny, I said back when I ran for VPE that I would not really care about anything else, if I won this position. It's true, I'm quite happy with my current position as VPE of VUSAC, it's pretty awesome. I still want this Orientation job, though...Evan said that I should only come back if I think I can change something or make something better than it was the previous year. I DO think there are minor things that can be changed in how the week functions, to make the experience more enjoyable for the leaders and for the first years, and that's why I want to do it. Oh, and it's a LOT of fun. w00t.
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