Bryan Kelley: Cullis Wade Depot and Welcome Center - Week Three

It was certainly nice to have a full week in the office last week. With traveling for weddings and other events, I had to miss Friday from the week before. With that all being said, it was certainly a good and busy week. One of the largest moments I took away from this week was just observing what an office environment looks like. As I have grown up, I have had the pleasure of working in a variety of different office environments. Interestingly enough, all of them have been completely different experiences from one another. Despite the offices and their environments being different from one another, there have been some themes that have remained seemingly constant throughout the whole process. 

One of these themes that I enjoy a whole lot is what I call office talk. It has been really interesting to observe the seemingly natural flow of what an entire day in the office looks like. Everyone gets into the office first thing in the morning and chats about how their evening was for about 15 minutes before everyone heads to their desks to start the day in earnest. Over the course of the morning, its always fun for me to watch as various members of the office get up and meander around for a moment because they competed a task and need a short walk before getting to the next task, they are working on a project and need to ask another person's opinion on it, or they just thought about something and wanted to bring the conversation up with the other person before they forget. These office talks offer a nice and concise respite to the monotony of responding to emails, writing training manuals, and the general day to day fatigue of sitting at a desk most days. 

Other than the moment I mentioned above, I also thought about the pride that we as student affairs professionals experience as we become ingrained in the culture and being of an institution. This past Friday, I had the opportunity to lead a campus wide tour with a group of fourth through eight graders. The tour was comprehensive and included athletic facilities and the MAFES Store for some good ole Mississippi State ice cream at the end of it all. As I was giving the tour, I could not help but experience a wonderful pride that welled up in my belly as the students were awed by the campus and everything we have to offer. Despite having only been here for just under a year, I have seemingly as much pride for MSU as I had for UNG. Of course there were more wonderful practical experiences had over the course of the week, but the most notable moments I had are the ones above.