Attitude of Gratitude: We are proud of you, said we are proud of you SAY WHAT?

I realize it is Sunday and I haven't posted for Saturday, but I spent the entire day with the same 17 RAs I wrote about in my last post. We got back from Central RAP and exhausted is not even the appropriate term, but I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything in the world. We ended winning best video, two of the Top Ten programs and most importantly THE SPIRIT STICK! Now as a 27-year-old woman, I understand that I should not be as excited about something that is basically a broom handle with tape around it, but the Spirit Stick is Central RAP's way of recognizing the school with the most school spirit. LMU actually hosted the conference last year and we had a less than stellar showing. All of our student staff was required to go and as soon as you require something, all of the fun and spirit is automatically sucked out of the experience.

This year a student delegate chair and I recruited participants, have been planning for two months, and have been meeting with the delegation for the past four weeks. We had personalized t-shirts, lion manes and tails, customized buttons, spirit packs, noisemakers, a banner, tons of give-away stuff and a video that is so awesome that I have seen it (with absolutely no exaggeration) 50 times. We also had half of the delegation submit program proposals and present and TWO presentations were recognized as a Top Ten program. These were out of SIXTY possible programs!

The students were so incredibly excited and it made such a difference that they all wantedto be there and were super excited. Also, part of the conference requirements was to post a video on their Facebook page and then the number of "likes" would help determine the video winner. We posted the video early Friday morning and by the time we got to Fresno that night we had over 300 likes. It was pretty incredible. While the number of likes was pretty cool, what was even better was the number of comments that people were leaving. We such an amazing amount of support and well-wishes! It was really amazing to see how connected everyone at LMU is and how everyone knows everyone, even though we are a campus of several thousand students.

I could go on and one about the awesomeness that was Central RAP, but pictures always say so much more, so here's a glimpse of the last 32 hours of my life! Enjoy!