February 17, 2010Since there are a number of you from whom I am now geographically distant, I plan to send a weekly email to you all to keep you posted on my adventures or lack thereof, as may be the case. If you would rather get emails less often, I also have a group to which I'm sending monthly notes. Just let me know and I'll switch you.
This week really has felt like an adventure, from the departure with my pared-down belongings last Wednesday morning to my landing in my beautiful new neighborhood.
Last Tuesday Celeste helped me load the majority of my belongings into a storage pod and clean out my apartment. I really, really appreciated her generous help. The process took longer than I'd hoped (of course), and then there was the running around to do all the final errands and get cleaned up before going to the going-away party that work generously threw for me. The party was at a pub / restaurant in the same hotel I'd stayed in when I first came to Vancouver to find a home twenty-five and a half years ago. It felt like everything had come full circle. I was so touched by how many people came to give me their good wishes, and that others sent cards and even cookies. I've been very lucky to work with such a good-hearted group of people. What a great send off.
The next morning my classmate Helen picked me up for the trip to Seattle. I was waiting on the curb for her with the few things I've kept with me: three suitcases, a guitar, meditation bench, snowshoes, and a thermarest. (Okay, there's also the three boxes of book that a friend brought down a couple weeks ago and a bicycle that another friend is bringing down in a week or two. The books are primarily for studying, but there are also a few that I just couldn't leave behind.) We had a great drive, and arrived in good time for the afternoon session with the other Leadership & Organizational Development (LOD) classmates and faculty.
The next four days were spent at the Doubletree Inn in Tukwila (south Seattle) at residential conference. It's always an intense experience, and this was no exception. The first day was very emotional. The shadow-side of all the elation that I'd been feeling for the previous five weeks hit me, and I was feeling insecure and anxious. Several other classmates are also experiencing big changes in their lives, and we had some unexpected changes in faculty that added to the upheaval. What a blessing to be with such a loving and supportive group of people while we were having such a rough day! I can't say enough good things about the people I go to school with.
The rest of the residential conference was within the more normal range of LIOS intensity and richness. Much of it was taken up with our second assessments, a rigorous and comprehensive process that involves each of us receiving ten other people's perspective on our strengths, areas for growth, and skill level, writing a self-assessment paper (all this done in the previous five weeks), then meeting with most of the people who provided feedback (and to whom we provided feedback) to discuss and update our assessments, and finally presenting a summary assessment to a faculty member, who then gives their more detailed feedback on our assessment of ourselves as well as all the work we've done to date in second year. It's a much more time consuming than getting a report card! I got very rich feedback and inspiration from the process -- such a gift to get that kind of honesty and appreciation.
The last day of our residential conference fell on Valentine's Day. I felt so happy to be able to hang out at the hotel to finish a last, short assignment rather than jumping in a car to drive home. My dear friend Katie very generously invited me to join her and her husband for dinner, and they introduced me to a fantastic Mexican restaurant in Fremont. Lots of great food in Seattle! Then I drove my roommate's car with all my things to my new home.
The next morning, President's Day in the U.S., a few of us drove to Steven's Pass to snowshoe all afternoon to an alpine lake and back -- the perfect antidote to the previous four days in the hotel. Yesterday I unpacked, which took about an hour and a half, and worked on figuring out what I need to do to get settled and survive here -- getting a phone, learning where I can go to buy groceries, getting a transit pass, etc. My roommate Jonathan spent two hours in the afternoon taking me on a tour of my new neighborhood, which I have fallen in love with. We're a short walk to waterfront pathways, the arboretum (a big park), and some lovely neighborhood shopping and dining areas. Today I bussed to Katie's studio to meditate with her and help her move artwork, then went for a run in the arboretum before calling the sponsor of my school project for a coaching session.
Friends here have been super welcoming. I have a walking date tomorrow, am going dress shopping on Friday morning, and have two tea dates, a dinner date, and a hiking trip planned. Between socializing and schoolwork, I expect to be very pleasantly occupied.
This has been one of the more adventurous weeks, hence the length of the email. I expect future missives will be shorter. I would love to hear how your week has been, too, and any adventures that are happening in your life.
Copyright © 2010 Lynn Thorsell, All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment