this is the year

Looking back on my past entries, it sounds like all I do is travel and have fun, which is definitely not the case. I have done some work over the past few months (already?!?), mainly on speaker research & invitations. "Speaker research & invitations" sounds so much more important than saying, I Googled names and organized contact info on Excel all day. Ah, the glamorous life of an admin assistant. I really do love the work that I do, and still see it as my dream job (for now).

Aside from learning what it means to be an administrative assistant in various contexts (planning a major conference in a Christian non-profit org, etc), I've also been learning a lot about myself, my work ethos, and my strengths/weaknesses. One realization that really caught me off guard- I'm not as detail-oriented as I thought I was. In the past I took a lot of pride in being able to handle tons of details/information, especially in event planning. So it was a rough wake up call when a number of instances & people made me realize that I'm not as competent as I thought I was. It's somewhat disappointing, but humbling and oddly freeing at the same time.

At our last Urbana team meeting of 2008, Jim asked us to picture individuals who will be present at the opening plenary session in the Edward Jones Dome. Because at the end of the day, all the work and hours spent on planning, collaborating, and re-planning comes down to that one person. That 3rd year at UW-M who thought she knew what she wanted to do after graduation. The current senior at Uni High whose ideas of incarnation, missions, and justice will be torn apart (in a good way). It's exciting when I imagine the Dome filled with people from all walks of life. And it makes all the Googling, Excel-ing, and Outlook-ing a bit more important, urgent, and even glamorous.

Today my boss and co-worker will be back in the office. I feel like this is the real start to the long race. Here's to a year full of adventures, lessons, and moments of seeing God at work. Happy new year, Urbana.