Our Hawaiian Adventure: MHRM Residence Weekend

Aloha. This past weekend (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) I had "Residence Weekend" for my masters program for UH Manoa. It was held at the Hawaii Prince Hotel in Waikiki - what a nice place! I was feeling a little nervous to start the program. It's a big step, also feeling slightly overwhelmed with everything else going on in our lives. But I was pleasantly reassured after this weekend that this was the best decision I could have ever made for my family and my future career.

The morning began around 8am on Friday with breakfast. The program has around 38 students on Oahu and and 16 neighbor island students. This weekend all students from the Big Island, Kauai, and Maui came to do an intensive orientation. I was one of the last people to show up and it's pretty daunting to walk into a huge ballroom of strangers alone. But, I knew that I had a few goals for myself.
1. Network, network, network!
2. Be myself and try to get to know as many different people as possible
3. Be a sponge and soak up as much information as possible.

Well, I definitely succeeded in those goals and then some. After a great conversation over breakfast, we started the program with introductions around 9am. Professor David Bess who is a former Dean of the College of Business and current professor for HR Management and Advanced Organizational Behavior started off the morning with the typical ice breakers. He began lecture and it seemed to fly by very quickly. The day was basically all about team dynamics. How teams work together and the process teams go through in the forming process. These are all things that we all go through in our personal and professional lives on a daily basis. And this stuff is very interesting for me. We were then broken up into teams (that we'll be working with for the rest of the semester). My team is made up of 6 others: Ashley, Anna, Linda, Katheryne, Paige and George. Our group is the definition of diversity. We do have a few things in common, but come from very different walks of life and backgrounds. I know I'm going to learn a lot from them and the rest of the professionals in my cohort class. Linda is the Instructional Designer for the U.S Coast Gaurd and works at the Training Headquarters just outside Bodega Bay. She is also a council member for the city of Sausalito. She is really nice lady and going to be a great mentor for me.

Sunday we went through a DiSC training session with Sarah Kalicki-Nakamura from Th!nk Hawaii. It was an inspirational session where we were able to take a 79-question self assessment and compare our interpersonal communication styles to those of our peers and teammates. If you are primarily "D" then you assert a "Dominant" personality, "i" is influence, "S" is steadiness and "C" is conscientiousness. Can you guess what I was?

In the afternoon session we had a training with a guy named Craig Chong who owns Fresh Leadership here in Hawaii. It was an inward look at ourselves and self relflection on what important events in our lives have gotten us to where we are. That really lead to the book we have to read by next Wednesday which is called "What got you here won't get you there." The title alone resonates with me. If I keep doing what i've always done, nothing will ever change. Now that is okay if I'm happy where I am. But if I want something else, something different, something more for my career and family then I have to change something up. I have to take risks (moving to Hawaii to start a masters program) in order to take my development to a whole new level.

So yes, this weekend really pumped me up and re-framed my mentality abut this program. I'm not nervous or scared to be taking on a gigantic workload with grad school...I'm optimistic and excited for 16 months of personal and professional development. I won't get these next 16 months back and I'm ready to be extraordinarily present during this time. To soak in every ounce of inspiration I can that will help me be all that I can be in my career.

Shout out to my mom! I miss you very much! I know you miss me too. I love you and can't wait for you to visit with Dad and meet our son and your grandson. You both will be the best role models for him as you were for me and I'm so happy he's going to have you two in his life.

This is a picture of us sitting in the grass last summer looking at the Eiffel Tower in Paris - sipping wine and eating peanuts. This is why I love her so much. We can just enjoy eachother and laugh. Safe fun. Haha