First Professional Conference...CHECK!

I attended my first professional conference last week and it was blast!

I was kind of nervous for the conference because I was taking time off work and I had heard from a few second years that they thought it was a waste of time. I took this all with a grain of salt because everyone has different experiences at conferences depending on the speakers and sessions they attended. I thought the second years would have been more excited for us and would try to give more advice than complain about their experiences, but maybe I was talking to the wrong ones.

          

I did get some good advice before we left though. I was told to make sure I attended the sessions I want to attend, and not just go to the ones that everyone else was going to. That’s always been something though for me to do, but I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and went to a few sessions all by myself. This was a good decision, because I was able to get some reflection in before the session started. Since conferences are always  on the go, it can be tough to really think and reflect on what you’ve been learning, which is why I typically felt I never came away with new information after a conference. I just never had the time to reflect on what I was learning.

            

The biggest take away from this conference for me was motivation! I had been feeling unmotivated in the preceding weeks because things weren't really going as I had expected them to be going. When I was in my undergrad, I had all this energy to work with the students and plan events, but I was already starting to feel some burnout since I was only focusing on student affairs. I’m a person that needs variety in life, so it’s been tough to constantly be thinking about students at work, in class, and in my personal life. However, after this conference, I gained back the motivation I was losing plus some! The speakers were genuinely passionate and excited about working with students and that rubbed off on me.

           

 The reason I think this conference went so well is that I went with open mind. I went to the sessions that sounded interesting to me, didn't worry about where the others were going and I came away with some great knowledge and ideas I can’t wait to implement into my assistantship.