Good morning, Baltimore!

Last month, as my students departed for Spring Break, I boarded a plane for Baltimore so that I could join my fellow student affairs professionals at NASPA. NASPA is a professional association whose initials stand for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, which references terminology that became passé in the late 80s (though my Masters Degree, which was awarded in 2002, uses equally dated language). Weirdly, NASPA's byline now references "Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education" with no mention of the acronym's meaning. Why is all of this important? It's not...it's simply another moment in which I take a hard left turn away from the point of my post, but now you know about NASPA soooo...you're welcome.

After four days in Baltimore during which I ate crab cakes at almost every meal (left turn), I arrived back home in Birmingham and began to reflect on my latest conference experience. My affinity for this conference has grown over the years, and this year's felt particularly special.

Me, Pete Neville, David Tuttle, & Raphael Moffett
(photo credit - some patron whose meal was interrupted)

First of all, it allowed me to reconnect with former colleagues who are near and dear to my heart. When you've worked in a profession for fifteen years, you're bound to make some significant connections. Counting my current boss, I had five supervisors present in the same location, which I can only imagine led to a gathering over drinks to compare notes such as these:

Does he still use 50 words when 5 will do?

Does he use the phrase "okey-dokey" when he's ready to get off the phone?

Does he leave his clothes all over the bedroom floor? (Wait, how did my wife join this confab?)

Is he still so insecure that he fabricates an imaginary "Council of Former Bosses" to discuss his annoying habits? (Whoa, my psyche just went meta...)

But really, it was great to reconnect with former colleagues who mean a great deal to me personally and professionally...even if they are meeting behind my back in my imagination. An especially touching moment occurred when my first boss, David Tuttle, tweeted a picture of me as I presented during a session. He remarked knowing me as a student and now a Dean of Students, which made him #proud...and made me #verklempt. (Blog amongst yourselves.)

Additionally, NASPA is a time to reconnect with my doctoral cohort--a community of friends who've become more like family over the years. We've celebrated marriages, births, and promotions, supported each other through illness, divorce, and loss, and journeyed through every major doctoral milestone together. And now that we're finished with coursework, our weekly WebEx visits and summer trips to Fort Collins have come to an end, which makes reunions like these all the more important.

Colorado State University Doctoral Cohort
College & University Leadership Program

Our Program Chair, Linda Kuk, received an award this year for outstanding contributions to higher education--well-deserved recognition for an outstanding professional and dedicated professor. Our program could have no better champion, and we could have no stronger advocate.

And of course, NASPA is a chance to recharge, reflect, and rethink all that we do on each of our campuses. I spent much of the conference attending sessions on proactively addressing and effectively responding to incidents of campus violence, but I did take the time to take in a session just for me called "Blogging Bravely."

It was amazing, and it really connected with the kind of blogger I want to be (when I'm not taking months long writing hiatuses). For me, blogging bravely means stepping beyond my personal stories (that comes easy for me) and speaking out when I feel compelled to share.

It may be messy, it will likely be difficult, and my charming wit won't always fend off criticism, but that doesn't mean my voice should be diminished. Much of what I will post may simply be for me, but that's okay, I'm choosing to engage the world...and blog bravely.