Starting back, then leaving again?

After being out of classes for over 8 months, it felt slightly comforting as I stretched out fully in my favorite Hopkins chair - Room 112, 2nd row, 3rd seat from the left - please don't steal it! You see, it was when I walked into Professir Giles' class and snagged my familiar seat that signified that I was back in action on the Texas Campus! Though my eyes are still set on graduation, walking through the doors of Hopkins felt amazing, the amount of reading on the other hand... well, we'll save that for another blog.

Why was I out of class? Good question - I was elected the International President of Collegiate DECA back in April and I accepted an internship that meant moving to Washington D.C. for nearly six months. DECA is actually the reason that I came to Northwood initially, I visited the campus during a Mock DECA day my sophomore year in high school and I earned several scholarships through my involvment as part of the Business Club Scholarship program, so I knew that my first blog had to be about DECA!

Just as I was settling back into my classes I had to leave to attend a conference in Orlando, Florida, known simply as the Mid-Winter Meetings. Here the National Officers from both the high school and college divisions meet and discuss recommendations to the Board, review their Programs of Work, and plan out the respective division's International Conference! The conference from my perspective was very busy, with a lot to accomplish in less than three days. We went from hotel baord room, to the site of our Opening Session, then to the Caribe Royale to see where the April conference would actually be hosted. This is about the time when I remembered that I had homework due in twenty minutes and suddenly realized that balancing my newly acquired position and school isn't going to be easy.

I was surprised at how much we accomplished in such a short amount of time; we were able to meet with the staff at Arabian Knights, do a skeleton walk-through with M&M Productions, critique our POW and outline steps to accomplish the rest, and even do our best to take pictures EVERYWHERE. I. Hate. Pictures. So maybe multi-tasking is something that I can handle. Maybe school and work won't be so hard to get used to. Either way, I'm glad that I'm back in class, glad that I'm still able to do my job with Collegiate DECA, and glad that I am once again, a Northwood Knight.

~Shankle