How time flies
Posted by Jeremy Langley | Posted in Random thoughts | Posted on 22-05-2009
It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve lived in Magnolia for a year now. When I started my job at Southern Arkansas University in May 2008, I didn’t know exactly what I was getting myself into, but I must admit that the last year has been one of the best I’ve had yet.
Over the course of the last year, I’ve grown a lot. I understand that the world isn’t as simple as I once thought it was, and I’ve learned that people you’ve only known for a short time can be your most trusted allies. Of course, there are some people I’ve met over the last year that I wouldn’t put in that last category!
My job has taken me to some interesting places and allowed me to do some things that I likely wouldn’t have done otherwise. I traveled to Oklahoma City for a conference and got taken to dinner in a limo while there. On the way home, I apparently barely missed Carrie Underwood’s grandpa at a gas station in Checotah, Oklahoma. I traveled to five states in two days last summer looking at rodeo arenas. That trip not only expanded my horizons about rodeo arenas, but it helped me to sharpen my political debating skills (you had to have been there). I’ve helped put on an NCAA regional baseball tournament and worked a 100+ hour week in the process. I’ve been to the Governor’s Mansion twice and am going back next month. I’ve been to more political events than I can count, and I’ve gained wisdom by watching some of the brightest minds in higher education do their work.
One of the accomplishments I’m most proud of is the coordination of the University’s Centennial events. I can’t claim much of the successes as my own, but I’ve been honored to chair the steering committee. On April 1 during the event we called “Founders’ Day,” my boss’s wife came up to me during the Tracy Lawrence concert and said, “Jeremy, when you took this job, I bet you thought you were getting some little bitty assistant to the president’s job, didn’t you?”
To be honest, I didn’t know exactly what I was getting myself into when I started my job as Assistant to the President for Special Projects, but I’m glad I did. If this first year is any indication of what the future holds, I’m more blessed than I could ever imagine.
