It’s good to be back.

I went home for about 4 days to see my family. We grilled out, got ice cream together, and I made a special appearance at my niece’s birthday party as the caped crusader himself. Her birthday party was superhero themed, and she absolutely loves batman.

She accidentally saw me eating a sandwich with my mask off, which was embarrassing. But rather than come to the conclusion that Batman isn’t real, she instead surmised that her uncle Justice is actually a superhero, which is totally okay with me.

I love my family a lot, but it is also good to be busy again. Samantha wasn’t able to come back to TN with me, and both my parents were working Thursday and Friday, so it was a little lonely for a bit. Now I am back with my trouble-loving dog and my beautiful wife. My planner is full, and I am back into the balancing act that is graduate school. Not much to say yet, other than the first day of classes being really great. You can tell that these professors have a passion for what they are teaching, and I hope that they continue to create thought-provoking projects like what I saw here on the first day.

We’ll talk about that later, I’m sure. It’s only been one day, after all. Orientation was a blast, and that’s the main thing I wanted to talk about here.

After an eerily quiet Uber ride with a mustached driver known to me only as Robert, me and my squeaky tennis shoes made our way into the Foster building and chose the first seat we could find. There was a lot of really helpful material in room 102 during orientation week. What immediately comes to mind is the career development seminar. We took a long test the night before on CareerLeader, which told us about our strengths, motivations, and optimal work culture. Most parts of the results were spot-on. The same can be said of the Myers Briggs test we took. However, I consider myself pretty good at being self-critical. While I might not like to admit it, there are times where I can be arrogant, judgmental, or overly focused on finding the right answers even to the point of insensitivity. Everyone has their own weaknesses, but little reminders like these tests help us to keep them in check when we forget.

Also…

This was my Myers Briggs result, ENTJ. “The commander.” May I just say, that having used 16personalities.com before, it seems like the authors hate this type a little? x) I used to be an INFJ, and they loved that one. But there’s a few lines out at the beginning that are just a bit salty:

• “Perhaps it is best that they make up only three percent of the population, lest they overwhelm the more timid and sensitive personality types that make up much of the rest of the world…”
• “The underlying thought running through the ENTJ mind might be something like “I don’t care if you call me an insensitive b*****d, as long as I remain an efficient b*****d”.”
• “Cold and Ruthless”

Thankfully, my N category teeters right on the edge from Intuition into Sensing, and the ESTJ group, “The Executive,” seems really chill. Although I am happy to be in this category 🙂 I feel like I personally manage my weaknesses well, and knowing them is half the battle.

My favorite part of Orientation was the last day of course. We were Gold Team.

“Gold Team Rules!”

Anyway. We sang the Lion King song during our opening ceremonies, and actually won that category. Initially we thought that we would lose for sure. We didn’t have an inflatable whale, speakers with music, or special outfits. But we did have heart. And the powerful emotional control that the Disney Corporation’s songs have on audiences. Also Artur was there and he spoke French, which is technically the language of love, so…

We did a lot of teambuilding that really helped me get to know the people who didn’t do business foundations. I made some good friends, and we had a lot of laughs.

Also, shout out to Seth and Brendan for climbing that super tall tower and jumping to a literal trapeze. I am a giant baby and did not want to do that.

Hasta luego!