Go West, Young Zach

{ Allow me to apologize in advance, this is going to be a little lengthy like last time, but it is an all encompassing summary of a fantastic trip! Enjoy! }

In my last post, I quickly mentioned that I was composing it in a van on the way to Wheaton College and Chicago. As I write this one, I am in the van on the way back to school. Lots of fun things happened in between, and I would love to share!

For Fall Break, I had the amazing opportunity to go on a Student Government benchmarking trip to Wheaton College with three of my six fellow cabinet members. Additionally, we were able to experience the awesomeness of Chicago, but more on that in a bit.

This was my first time in another time zone, and it has also been the farthest west I have ever been. So, it was kind of a big deal! And, I loved every second of it. It was truly an amazing trip, and I would go so far as to say it was my favorite fall break in my four years of college.

Upon arriving at Wheaton, we were instantly greeted by a phenomenal group of people who were in Wheaton’s student government (SG), and they treated us to deep dish pizza (so good!) at a local pizza shop. In following, we gathered back at the SG office in Wheaton with their student government as well as some SG representatives from Taylor University in Indiana. We all bonded very quickly and discussed each of our respective SG structures on a high level. After that, I got to experience a bit of Wheaton apartment life with my campus host who was one of the executive vice presidents on Wheaton’s SG.

On Thursday, my fellow cabinet members and I met with our respective counterparts from Wheaton and Taylor and were able to get a little deeper into discussion about how our roles work at our respective institutions. It was truly a valuable learning experience, and it would be fair to say that we have a bunch of ideas to bring back with us to possibly shape or enhance the way we do things within our SG.

Our time with each other’s SG took most of the day, and it was most definitely a great experience. In the late afternoon, my group headed into Chicago with the end goal of seeing the Blue Man Group. Upon arriving in the city via the Metra (train), we had dinner at Boston Blackie’s, which is rather ironic since we were in Chicago... Needless to say, I enjoyed an absolutely phenomenal Boston Blackie’s burger and probably the best glass of raspberry iced tea that I have ever had. Post-dinner, we did a little walking and then finally gave up, hailed a taxi, and traveled up to the Briar Street Theatre where we saw the Blue Man Group. Our SG president was able to get us third row seats in the poncho section (if you have ever seen the Blue Man Group or heard about it, you’ll know exactly why we needed ponchos), but luckily we were not in the splash-zone. The show that the group put on was rather well done, and pretty funny at times. I really did not know what to expect, but I would definitely recommend going to see the group at least once to anybody; it is quite the experience.

On Friday, our group spent the morning visiting different places on Wheaton’s campus, particularly the Marion E. Wade Center. If you do not know the importance of this building and are a fan of C.S. Lewis, you definitely need to look into this and make every attempt to visit it. Various things of Lewis’ are on display at the Wade Center, particularly a desk he used, a pipe, a pen, and, most importantly, the wardrobe that helped to inspire The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe! I was quite proud to get a picture next to that wardrobe. All of the items on display at the Wade Center were pretty legit, and I am more than happy for having the opportunity to have witnessed it all. The remainder of the morning involved seeing an excavated mastodon at the Wheaton Science Center, seeing the Billy Graham Center, and taking many pictures of the magnificent architecture and landscape of Wheaton College.

In the afternoon, we went back into Chicago with the primary goal of ascending the Sears Tower (now professionally known as the Willis Tower, but, apparently, native Chicagoans are a bit hostile toward this new name) and looking out over the city of the Skydeck. I have never ridden in a faster elevator, and words cannot adequately describe the beauty of the views we had from the tower. It was beyond exhilarating. We could see for miles, and it was simply stunning. Many pictures were taken (obviously), and we even got to stand on one of the glass ledges that protrudes from the tower for quite the [slightly intimidating] view. There is nothing quite like standing on glass and seeing the city directly below your feet. It was quite the mind-blowing experience.

After our experience in the tower, we explored Millennium Park which included seeing The Bean and The Great Lawn. We ended up eating dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. on the Navy Pier, which was a fantastic choice. After walking around a little bit after dinner on the Pier, we took the subway back to the Metra station and left Chicago for the last time for our trip. It was indeed a bittersweet moment, but I suppose all good things come to an end eventually...

Overall, this trip to Wheaton College and Chicago was quite spectacular. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to go, and I would certainly love to go back at some point. I feel as if I like cities more and more with every time I go into one. There’s just something about the general atmosphere and culture that is so invigoratingly awesome; honestly I do not know if I can quite put my finger on it, but I really do enjoy the urban culture. I will miss Chicago in the meantime, but I am definitely satisfied with how this fall break panned out.

Apparently AWOL

Remember how I may have mentioned about being able to post a little more regularly? Yeah...that fantastic idea was only that: an idea. I clearly did not realize that the combination of keeping up with coursework and my duties as the Student Government Vice President of Finance would be more than enough to keep me busy. But as I sit in a van on the way to Wheaton College and Chicago (more on that in one of my next posts!), I can finally give some sort of an account of the last month or so. It has been exciting, to say the least.

I moved back into school early at the end of August due to being directly involved in Student Government Association (SGA), and we were quickly plunged into a leadership retreat with all student leaders on campus. It was truly a very beneficial and encouraging weekend, and the bonding that took place with my fellow SGA cabinet members was absolutely incredible. We became rather good friends very quickly, and that bonding/development only got better as we left the retreat and entered into our training week. Training week was time-intensive, but it was truly an invigorating experience. As a cabinet, we developed a set of genuine, ambitious goals for the academic year and also grew even closer as we began to fall into the responsibilities of our individual roles. Needless to say, I am more than excited to see the progression and completion of our goals.

Classes started the following week, and after having gotten used to just working on SGA things, it was a bit weird falling back into the swing of the normal college life. Luckily, none of my classes have required crazy amounts of work for the first month. I say this because for SGA, beginning to mid-September is budgeting season for the fall semester. As the VP of Finance, that involves balancing and approving a budget for 40+ student organizations. It was indeed no small task, and it was especially challenging to keep up with the budgeting in the midst of taking care of routine job tasks and keeping up with the homework that I had (which was mostly reading and small-ish assignments). 

After almost three weeks of one-on-one meetings with clubs, figuring out how and where to cut, and standing before Senate to find a way to cover a $10k deficit to balance the budget and then approve the balanced budget, I can say that I am definitely relieved but also very thankful for what was ultimately a character-building experience. I am thankful for several people who helped out during the process, but I have to thank God the most. Without trusting in Him to make everything come together, I literally would have gone insane. Frankly, with everything that was at stake responsibility-wise, I probably should have been more frazzled than I was. But the Lord ultimately pulled me through it, and he placed key people in my life through which to encourage me and spur me on.

Through the whole budgeting experience, I learned a lot about patience, time management, and not being afraid to seek help. I also have gained quite the appreciation for high-level finance positions in the business world. Managing money for a large organization or large set of organizations is not easy, especially when you need to cut certain things for the sake of budget-balance and do not want to completely crush someone’s dreams. Additionally, I have gained a bit of experience in decision-making and general organization. While the job can be a little stressful at times, I am more than thankful for the practical experience I am gaining and for a platform on which to use the organizational and technical skills that God as given me.

Now that budgeting is over, my role as VP of Finance has become mostly that of routine operations. These tasks mostly involve purchase approvals, cash advances, bookkeeping, and answering any questions that clubs may have about their funds or anything financially related within the realm of SGA. I also have the opportunity to work on various goals (previously mentioned earlier in this post) for SGA that I will expand upon more in the future.

If you are still reading at this point, either you are bored or you actually kind of care about what I have to say, even though it is more of a personal recap than anything thought-provoking. If you fit the latter, thank you so much for your support!! It has been a very fast and busy month, but I have really experienced much personal and spiritual growth while immersed in a business kind of atmosphere.

I am so thankful for where God has taken me this past month, and there is so much more I could say (especially outside of SGA things). But this post has gone on quite long enough already, so you’ll just have to wait until next time.