Firstly, many apologies on not ever getting around to writing about week 4 of Stanford, it turns out life back home wasn’t as instantaneously calm as I expected it to be.
Let’s just say I was very reluctant to get on the plane back home after my last week over in beautiful Northern California. Graduating the program and saying goodbye to some great new friends and the amazing lifestyle that is Stanford student life was pretty damn tough - but it was definitely comforting to know I was coming back to the second half of, what will no doubt continue to be, my craziest year to date.
Secondly, I’ve decided to count the four weeks I spent over there as 28 more days as Co-CEO so we’ll call this, my first day back in the office, day 122!
Admittedly, it was quite a struggle readjusting to my 6am alarm this morning, but the Sydney traffic was at a minimum and the weather’s nothing to complain about so my welcome back to the office has been off to a great start.
I’m slowly but surely getting through my 190 unread emails and upon checking my calendar, there’s plenty of exciting events coming up that I’ve got to prepare for - so I guess you could say I’m straight back into it!
I’d have to say the most beneficial take out from the past 6 weeks was the time I had to genuinely reflect on my experience as Co-CEO so far, what I’ve learnt, what I want to do with said learnings, (i.e I’m currently writing up some light bulb moments I had around AIME’s strategy), and how I feel about what happens once it all wraps up.
I’m still trying to figure out exactly what I want next year to look like for me, but one thing is for certain, I’ll be going back to university.
I forgot how much I love studying and after Stanford (although college life is a whole other ball game in comparison to what we do here at home), I’m definitely missing UOW. I need and want to finish my degrees pretty bad and I know I’ll be much better off with what I can offer to the Indigenous space I’m already navigating once I’ve graduated.
Under no circumstance does this mean I want to cut ties with AIME - so that’s where my dilemma lies, in what capacity can I continue to work whilst studying? I’m hoping that’s a question I can answer in the coming weeks.
I also had my first proper rest since starting this job over this period. I know Mon to Fri classes from 9am to 5pm doesn’t exactly sound like a rest, but a break from Full-Time work and being able to step back in to the study mode I know how to navigate so well, was undeniably a kind of restful change. (The two weeks leave I had on the end of it definitely helped too).
Side note: It’s just occurred to me how obvious it is that I’m a massive nerd through my loving description of getting back to study. When I was 16 one of my aunties bought me a book titled something along the lines of “Why Nerd’s Rule The World” and from that moment I’ve realised it’s not exactly a well kept secret so I’m wearing the label loud and proud.
And that little gem is what I’ll leave you with.
I’m back to my (mostly) daily updates too! Now I’ve got to get back to writing up a couple of speeches and the rest of those pesky emails!
