Validation

In my endeavors with leadership at Drake I came across a book which has done wonders for me. It’s your Ship by Captain Abrashoff would be on my must read to lead list. One of the simple and effective notions discussed is validation. Everyone, regardless of your job, likes to know they are appreciated. The best leaders will take time to make sure they have face time with everyone in the organization to at genuinely thank them for what they do. I had this experience working in the admissions department, where I am the lowest ranked person. I do clerical work. If you are reading this as a prospective student, chances are any mailing you received, I and my cohorts of minimum wage earners assembled. A few days ago the head-honcho of our entire department came into our room. There is generally no reason to be in our room-other than the coffee machine, but he is on a different floor, and presumably has an office big enough for his own coffee machine. He stopped by just to say hello, chat with us and then at the end thanked us for what we were doing. Is what we do glorious work, no, its mundane, but it is sincerely appreciated by the top brass and knowing that helps ease the monotony. Imagine if the general came in to talk to privates just to say hey I really appreciate the work you are doing for this organization. Chances are they would remember that.
Instill validation in your own leadings. Every man in the fraternity was asked to give me the addresses and birthdays of his parents/guardians. On those birthdays I send a card from all of us brothers. At the end I always put in something about their son that I appreciate, an idea I borrowed from the book. I, like Captain Abrashoff, had a member come to me and thank me for sending that, and his father told him that he was proud of him, which didn’t happen often. It was a fantastic feeling.

All the Small Things

Last night was a pretty cool evening. In fact this whole year has delivered many “I love college” moments.
Millions of years ago Greek Life stood for building better men and women and fraternal bonds with everyone. One of the ways this was shown to the sorority women was through serenades. Every Greek organization has a sweetheart song (ours is the Rose of Pi Kappa Phi.) Serenades have evolved into a song written about the sorority followed up by the sweetheart song. This allows for as much creativity and fun as possible. Last night was probably the best one we have ever done. Ironically there were only three of us to serenade the women of Kappa Alpha Theta. The other houses easily all had at least 20 guys. We went 2nd to last and walked into the room packed with probably 80 Theta girls. I set down the plastic Rock Band drum set while Alex and Ben strapped up their guitar hero guitars. We hit play on the ipod and went into a Theta specific version of Blink 182’s All the Small Things (All the Thetas.) We rocked it and had the sorority girls up on their feet jumping around and rocking out. Then the three of us dropped to our knee and barber shop quarteted (new word) our Sweetheart Song. This is the first time Pi Kappa Phi took first in a serenade.
Shortly after I put on a suit and tie and argued before the entire Student Senate for their endorsement of Drake Sportsmen’s club to give student a venue to learn how to safely enjoy firearms. It also went brilliantly. It has been quite some time before I have argued before a large group (mock trial high school) and it is still a rush. Not bad for a Thursday night.

Take it Easy

Four bands exist on my bucket list. In no particular order: Green Day, Blink 182, Jimmy Buffett, and the Eagles. I recently got to check off one, which puts me at 50%.
Friday evening I was out with a buddy hanging out with more buddies, doing buddy things. After sinking a remarkable shot, I checked my phone. The text message I had received read the following: Sunday evening, would you be my guest at the Eagles if you don’t have anything to do?”
The implications of that text made my weekend. In fact this last month has been fantastic! (Marathon, Eagles, Birthday, making use of 21st birthday)
There have been many times in my life when the Eagles have given much much comfort. This past summer, sitting on the beach south of the Suez I was switching between Jimmy and the Eagles, and it was simply amazing. As I sat in the Wells Fargo Arena in downtown Des Moines, the same feeling swept over. In fact I generally have this rather stupid looking smug on my face when I become extremely happy and excited. My cheeks hurt from 3 hours of smiling. The most magical moment was when my favorite song came on: Take it to the limit, one more time…

Visitors n Shakes

Big news at Drake: yesterday Obama came to the residence of our Athletic director, and was even quoted as saying “Go Bulldogs.” (There is reason enough to come to Drake.) Today Justice Scalia is coming to give a lecture. (Long time readers will remember Roberts my first year.) Tomorrow is fireworks! It should all be a pretty cool week.
I went to Drake Diner last night. If you ever find yourself near Drake, in Des Moines or West of the Mississippi, you need to stop at Drake Diner for the shakes. Chocolate and Peanut Butter milkshake is guaranteed to cure any school stress and may also be linked to the elixir of life.

"When you photograph people in color you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls!" ~Ted Grant

A friend and I explored Des Moines the other day, this is probably my favorite shot of our time together. As I am currently stateside, the musings here will lose some of their "frontline" flavor. I hope to replace them with different photographs of my travels and the Drake area. Enjoy!

here we go again

I am now entering my junior year at Drake. This semester will be marked with new struggles and triumphs. I hope to be able to share most with you. This semester will also have an underlying tone (keeping with the theme) of gearing up for going abroad for the semester. The spring semester will find me in Alexandria Egypt, away from the cold Iowa winter, speaking Arabic and enjoying argeelah, on the Mediterranean sea.
The struggles coming up will revolve around fraternity life, transitioning to being an upperclassmen, finding a job, and the normal college “stuff.”
Wednesday marks one of the events I am most proud of for Drake, First Year Move-in. About 800 first years are coming in. They will park their minivans and u-hauls by the side of the road to check in. When they come out with room assignment and keys, an army of upperclassmen will descend on them to carry their stuff up. This is how we welcome them to the Drake family. (Generally we can get it all with one run of folks.) Everyone helps out, from the Greeks, the religious groups, the service groups, the academic groups. One of my favorite stories from last year goes something like this:
New First year mother is in happy shock from the support and help her son was receiving. There was about one more load and an older man in the same move-in crew t-shirts as the rest of the teams bent down to help carry it. The mother asked if he was a Res Hall coordinator of some sort. He replied “Ma’am it is a pleasure to meet you, my name is President Maxwell.”
Everyone helps.

Gone Fishin'

The trip is over. I am one twelve hour flight from Chicago, a three hour drive home, and hopefully a large amount of Wisconsin 2% milk. I am in Istanbul airport right now. This is a much smaller version of the international Mecca that is Heathrow. A few differences I noticed while in the open air (it’s raining, which is an enjoyable change) smoking lounge enjoying one of Cuba’s finest that I can’t bring back into my homeland include the lack of English being spoken by the smokers. Judging by the stereotypes of the 20 or so folks enjoying their nicotine fix I was the only American. Once again, abroad and alone like the desert, or my latest adventure in Egypt: the sea.
We got up before the call the prayer. As the 3,000+ Imams of the mosques were getting ready to climb the stairs of their minarets(or more realistically, turn on the microphone) that would cascade over a sleeping Cairo for the morning prayer, we were on a bus headed northeast to Ein Soukna, the area just south of the Suez Canal. Upon arrival we stowed our gear, and many people took advantage of the natural cradle provided by a marriage of our ship the Prince Omar, and the Red Sea. Those of us that were awake threw lines off the stern for the two hour journey to the fishing spot in the middle of the Red Sea. Large cargo and oil ships heading into or out of the Suez surrounded us. I imagine this is what Lord Nelson felt like on a daily basis with control of a massive armada. Our mission was less imperialistic. We were going to conquer the sea in the form of a noble and long lasting tradition and join the Somalian pirates further down the coast in a calling that Captain Jack Sparrow would be proud of: fishing. Gone Fishin’.
A boy becomes a man when one thing happens in his life: he is too big for the bathtub. The fierce naval battles I waged in-between rinse and repeat could have easily been taking place around me with the vast amount of shipping we saw. Once we reached our spot we reveled in the fact that we were between Africa and Asia.
Two things have always existed: Allah and Egypt. Both have continuously stood the test of time. God has always been worshiped in Egypt, though sometimes in a plural form. The religious devotion the Egyptians have had whether it be the Pharaohs or the Copts and Muslims is something I really admired. It was a hell of trip. I was a little “templed and tombed” out by the end but really glad to have seen almost all of Egypt.
On our last night I had the best hookah of my life. This was at a café in our new neighborhood where we were for the last 4 days. Zamalek is very much like Wisconsin Ave in D.C. It is chalk full of embassies and Victorian style buildings. It is quiet with many perfect and hidden cafes. At the last one of these, where I increased my affection for shisha, I managed to enjoy the bubbling smoke, a burger, tea and lemon juice for $12.00. Egypt was very inexpensive, unlike the current duty free areas I have been frequenting in order to be able to cash hard on the long flight from Istanbul to Chicago.
Hopefully I can find some inspiration above the clouds and get in a final post. A lack of a drinking age at 35,000 feet may help. Just kidding. See you soon.