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Director's Message - Fall 2007
Melissa Johnson, Ph.D., SSSP Director 
Email questions or comments to: johnsmel@hawaii.edu
ALOHA!
Wow! Welcome to the 2007 Fall semester at UH Hilo! Earthquakes, hurricane warnings and even a tsunami alert have greeted you as you returned to campus.
For all of our participants, whether you are freshmen, transfer or returning students we are happy that you are here, safe and ready to face the challenges and rewards of this college semester. The similarities between the climatic events of our recent past weeks and the upcoming semester did not escape my mind. What am I talking about?
When talking about education, elementary and secondary school traditionally refers to the three R's, "reading, writing and 'rithmetic". In college, I'm talking about the three E's: expectations, experience and emotions.
As we listen to the warning about Hurricane Flossie approaching the Big Island, we listened and hopefully, in our own best interest, we prepared for the safety and well-being of ourselves and those we care about. Yet in the middle of waiting, without warning, we were taken by surprise by an earthquake! And then we went back to waiting for the hurricane that, thankfully, passed us by without too much major damage.
This reminds me so much of what is happening right this minute to all of you, all of us, as we gear up for the Fall semester.
We all have expectations. What are your expectations of this semester? How have you prepared to protect your own best interests and your well-being? Do you have expectations of success or failure? How do you best prepare for success? What inventories have you taken? How have you gotten ready to meet the challenges ahead? What is your potential and what can you really do?
Do you expect to meet new people and make new friends? How does a person get ready to make new friends? Do you practice smiling or do you make a promise to yourself to put yourself out a bit and be the first one to say "Hello".
Well, for all of expectations, the reality is never what we think it will be. Never. Our minds create pictures, scenarios and we have hopeful wishes. Then, what actually comes to pass is how our life truly is; our experiences and the events that unfold that form our memories and ourself. It is what is actually happening to us. Events and situations can often take us by surprise; we have highs and lows, moments of great joy and connectedness as well as times of being lonely, sad or disappointed. This is all part of the package of any new path taken.
There is a gap between our expectations and how we successfully deal with all the transitions that we actually experience. It will take time; a bit longer than we might imagine. So leave time for adjustment. There are intellectual, emotional and even physical adjustments to any new endeavor. We may have a new time zone to get use to, it may affect our sleep, our appetite, our attention span. We may experience homesickness or need to get use to sharing a residential room or apartment and get to know a new roommate. We need to get adjusted to our classes and to a new study schedule. And these adjustments will not happen overnight or in one week, not even in two weeks, because our experiences happen in actual human time. Not video time or movie time. Not "Kodak moments" time. For all the speed of our current technological culture, our bodies still operate in human time, not nano seconds.
Our minds create these powerful images and desires that we want. And we usually expect them to manifest immediately. Therefore we sometimes don't let go of those images so that we can participate in what is actually happening in our lives, tap into being aware and finding meaning in our everyday experiences.
What is the bridge that spans the gap between expectations and experience? It is our emotions.
Please feel your way through this semester! Keep in touch with how you FEEL, rather than how you THINK you should be. We want to be successful-how do you feel walking into the class, into a test? Do you feel prepared or scared? Are you confident that you have studied to the best of your time and ability or did you cram the night before and feel a fraud and failure before you took a seat? We all want to make our parents, our family proud, but the decisions you make now will shape YOUR life, decisions that can determine your life path. Please make sure the decisions are based on what you want to accomplish, not someone else's definition of success. Those who love you will want your goals and achievements formed by your own needs and desires.
In the effort to socialize and make new friends do we act in ways that make us happy with ourselves? Proud of ourselves? College is definitely a place to expand our horizons, test a few more boundaries or even take a few risks. However, testing our new social selves is not about adopting behavior that we secretly feel is not true to ourselves. Stay in touch with yourself and your feelings. Listen to your feelings and maintain your authentic self. Expect to feel some frustration but make the effort to ensure that you are feeling pride in your accomplishments and your actions.
Heeding your emotions is critical, yet they are not the only indicator of your holistic well-being. Every week, (every day!) take an internal inventory. Amidst all the external events happening, check into your internal state of mind and being to examine the following aspects of yourself. You can count one "self" on the fingers of one hand.
- Your Intellectual Self: You are in school! Pay attention to your academics. Invest in thinking and using logic, both for your assignments and in your personal judgement. It will keep you here!
- Your Physical Self: Exercise. Move your body every day. Take a walk to decompress from the stress. Dance, just for the fun of it.
- Your Social Self: Remember those people who encourage you, love you. Visit them, laugh with them, cry when it's needed. Let them support you. Minimize contact with those people who are negative,don't support your dreams, tempt you to indulge indestructive or nonproductive behaviors, they are not supporting your ultimate goals or your best self.
- Your Emotional Self: As I've said above, how you feel will help you know what is meaningful to you and what makes your experiences genuine and valuable.
- Your Spiritual Self: Whether you pray, meditate or just take a moment of silence to quiet your thoughts and reflect this very simple act can give you guidance and direction.
And last, but certainly not least: CREATE. All of the above five steps can be combined in channeling your energy into some form of creative self-expression; whether it is singing, writing a poem about how you feel on a given day or to say how you feel about a person or situation. Tend to a plant, paint your room, sew, stamp, design, craft, move your body in dance or sport. Make your academics a creative endeavor: share what you care about, your passion and your compassion. Make this semester an investment in feeling engaged and present. Give of yourself.
So, from a temporary two-day closure of the UH Hilo campus while we waited for Flossie to the first day of school when you slid into that desk in a classroom and looked around you - we often don't know what may happen. However, you can know one thing: your best resources, your best preparation for your succcess is all right at hand. It all lies within you.
In all of your endeavors Janis, Barbara, Norine,and I, the staff of the Student Support Services Program are here to provide you with information, resources, encouragement and any assistance we can. Please come into the office and come in often. Have a happy, hard-working, challenging and rewarding semester!
Mahalo,
Dr. Melissa Johnson, Director
UH Hilo - Student Support Services Program