Passing of the Gavel! End of the End

Oh. My.

As I have mentioned, only a few times, ARH has been a big part of my life for the past three years. :) There is an event called Passing of the Gavel to pass from one administration to the next and celebrate the year of achievements, accomplishments, and triumphs. The Vice President of ARH is responsible for planning and executing the ceremony, and I have to say - it's my favorite thing to plan. (Next to Move-In of course!) ;-)

This one was obviously extra emotional for a few reasons:

• This would be my last official event as VP of ARH
• My main advisor went into labor the Monday before and wouldn't be present
• We were awarding the first ever Dave Nolan Award

So obviously, this was the last event for me. At the conclusion of the event, the president and I pass the gavel to the new president and vice president. That concludes all of our responsibility, privilege, and title as the voice of the residence hall students. Literally, I walk out of this as a general student. Don't get me wrong, I was partially excited to pass on this responsibility but I was also scared to start my adjustment of passing on this experience.

I got a text message from my advisor, Kim, on the Monday before around lunch time that she went into labor. HOLD THE PHONE. Her due date was May 1st, and it was April 5th.... I suddenly lost my therapist, advisor, and support! I was hardly prepared to end my year without her and I was not particularly emotionally stable leading up to Passing! Not having her at the event was eating me alive and I spent some time crying about it! :( Of course I was happy and excited for her, but talk about an emotional few days!

Last summer, University Housing Services lost a great member of its team, Dave. He lost his battle with cancer. Dave had only been with UHS for three years, but he made quite the impact. He was known for the behind the scenes work he did and his gentle ways. I worked with him in quite a few ways; move-in and renovations advisory council. He was always very patient with me and knew what to say when I was frazzled or confused. Glenn and I tried to think of a way to commemorate his impact and we came up with the Dave Nolan Award that exemplifies all of his traits. We added this to the yearly awards we present at Passing of the Gavel. We also invited his entire family to watch the presentation of this award.

So there you have it - three huge reasons why this year's Passing was tough! But enough of blabbing for awhile.... let's show some pictures. :)

A shot of the room... I invited 200 people and 120 RSVPed yes to come! My biggest event! :) I served heavy hors d'oeuvres and had a "green" ish theme! I couldn't eat a thing because I was so nervous!

After some tasty-ness, Glenn and I started the event with appreciation of the GA and our executive board

We acknowledged eight groups for their hard work with ARH!

Then we appreciated all 10 members of our executive board. I picked this picture to represent our exec board because... let's face it... Shannon means a lot to me! I made her cry with my speechy thing :P

After appreciation and a short conference presentation, we started awards! This is Jessica presenting Amelia with the First Year Student Award! There are 10 awards total.

This is Dave's wife and family presenting the first ever award. The place was very humbled.

The last award presented is the ARH executive board member of the year. I was very lucky to win this award and was presented by my second advisor, Raechel!

My outgoing VP speech. I gave one last year - but I was the incoming VP as well! So it was more of an "address." Trust me, outgoing speeches stink! I only cried a tid bit!

The VP of Student Affairs came to give a few words and Pass the Gavel between administrations. He is one of my most favorite people at ISU!!!! :)

Glenn and I have had a few funny stories in UHS and Student Affairs and Steve was touching on a few of them. We stood up there like champs and laughed at ourselves. Good times. :)

This is it! This is Glenn and I preparing to Pass the Gavel to Ryan and Jessica! It's over!

Shannon and a bunch of amazing ARH people surprised me with a scrapbook at the end of the event. They had assembled it behind my back as a big thank you! It is beautifullll!!!!

Shannon and I posing after the event. We have gone through a lot together!!!

This is truly the ending of an era. Ok, era is a little dramatic.... but this is a huge chapter in my life that ended and a big one that opened for the new administration. I enjoyed every single experience, every single person, and every single event because I learned SO much and I learned about this passion I didn't know I had. Yes, there were ups and there downs, and there were times that I wanted to quit and never turn back. But each one of those experiences helped shape me as well as shape others around me.

I dont know what to do with my time anymore! My schedule just reduced from 8 office hours to 0, 8 weekly meeting hours to 0, no more general assembly meetings, and no more executive board meetings! I better take up knitting or something!! :)