Costumes of All Sorts

Yesterday, my day was book-ended by children in costumes.  My route to my new job takes me by an elementary school, and on my way to work, we sat through several changes of the traffic light while a parade of 50 children in costumes crossed the street.  And then, of course, last night was Halloween, where we went for an early evening walk to our friend's house, helped pass out candy there, and then returned to our house to pass out the last of our candy.

In the in-between time, I reported for my first day at the new job.  I arrived just in time for the campus costume contest, which featured animals, since the campus has a vet tech program--what a fun way to start!

I already knew some of the people, as they had once worked at my old school.  The academic team was welcoming.  The other people I met throughout the day were also friendly.  The campus is clean and bright.  I like my office.

I spent much of yesterday just as I did the past few weeks:  sorting paper into piles to be shredded and piles to be recycled.  Yesterday, I also made a pile with a question mark:  important or not?  I have moved offices several times in the last few years, so I didn't have as much paper to sort through in the old office.  My new office still has more sorting work to do.

Today we will also tackle the faculty files.  We have an accreditation visit coming up, and we need to know what's been collected and what hasn't.

Despite the looming accreditation visit, I find myself looking forward to going to work.  I'm happy to have moved from a for-profit school to a non-profit school, to have moved from being a department chair to a director of education, in charge of the whole academic side of the campus.  One of my main tasks will be to improve retention and persistence, but I can support that vision.  I know that an unfinished degree brings no one any improvement, but lots of heartache.  People who earn the degree are likely to be better off, especially since at my campus, they will be getting degrees in health fields.

Onward to day 2!