100 Days of Higher Ed – A Reflective Writing Project.

One of my “New Year’s” Resolutions was to start my blog back up and to do a lot more writing, of all kinds. And while it has taken a hot minute to get started I think the time to start has arrived. I am a huge fan of narrative but what I have not done is record my own higher ed narrative. How did I start, how did I get here, and what have I learned? I know I am not that remarkable and quite frankly I am rather boring but I do want to create a personal history that I can look back upon one day. So I have decided to start this 100-day project. 100 topics, higher ed themed, and try to average around 750 words a day. This is on top of three other writing projects I have started. So this should be fun and test my resolve.

I got the idea from a non-Higher Ed space. Blogger Nicole Zhu https://medium.com/100daysofwriting/100-days-of-writing-prompts-a98eeb8939c2 had a post on this practice in 2015 and I bookmarked it. A few weeks ago I came across some old book marks and it intrigued me. Can I show the same discipline she did. She is also a great reader and posts about reading a book a week for years now. Personally, I am not quite there yet. So I crafted 100 Higher Ed writing prompts adjusted from her list because I really like the variety and personality. I think I can do it. Follow along to see!

1. Women in Higher Ed who are Role Models for me
2. What was a game changing experience for me during my career
3. On drinking and Higher Ed – Conference Flashback
4. My Favorite Movies about Higher Education
5. That feeling that I am always behind on work and projects
6. What would I change about my career?
7. What my parents think I do
8. On staying connected in higher ed
9. Why do we Higher Ed folks have such a hard time taking a day off?
10. My morning routine at the office.
11. That overwhelming feeling started before COVID
12. A story about a Higher Ed scar I have
13. How do I answer the question, what is my favorite college team?
14. A song that reminds me of a time and place in college
15. Three things I want out of the rest of my higher ed experience
16. On reducing volume and garbage in higher ed
17. The problem with higher ed conferences
18. What is urgent and what is important in higher ed
19. What is my favorite article of higher ed swag or clothing
20. The types of Higher Ed friendships and what do they mean?
21. Administration vs. Student Affairs – when you’re a jet you’re a jet
22. Thoughts on higher ed imposter syndrome
23. Travel as a higher ed professional
24. Accepting yourself as a Higher Ed professional
25. Where am I in my current Higher Ed career
26. Why I love College bookstores
27. My relationship with higher ed leadership
28. College life and Television
29. A retrospect on my undergraduate life at East Carolina
30. What I learned from working with multiple universities
31. Student activism today
32. On working with student’s families
33. What is my favorite memory from my first year as a professional
34. On wellness as a higher ed professional
35. On challenging traditional tropes of academic work
36. My favorite meal I ever had on campus
37. The advice I would give myself at Orientation
38. My favorite Higher Ed website
39. On Higher Ed nice
40. my biggest fears for the future of higher ed
41. Things higher ed professionals are unhealthy about
42. My relationship with HigherEdJobs.Com
43. A higher ed book I go back to
44. On risk management and student activities
45. Using social media as a higher ed pro
46. A journal article I return to
47. How am I feeling about higher ed in the time of COVID
48. Beautiful higher ed campuses spaces I have been to
49. Research topics I hope to get to before I die
50. A narrative about my first week in grad school at SIU Carbondale
51. My uneasy relationship with college athletics
52. The idea that to advance in higher ed is to always move
53. Meditations on teaching
54. Building community that does not include other higher ed professionals
55. A time I made a mistake at work
56. Write an email to a hypothetical university president I will never hit send on
57. Why the student newspaper is so important and why I miss it
58. My five higher ed milestones
59. My higher ed best friend
60. On missing students when you finally get the big job
61. Emails! We have to talk about emails
62. When I was a little M Preston what did I want to be when I grew up
63. My favorite campus tradition and why I think they are important
64. On staying sane as a higher ed pro
65. Why does this work never get any easier and why do we keep doing it?
66. Marking Time with Semesters Forever
67. Dorm life before the internet
68. Why Family Weekends are so much fun!
69. We still believe in summer in higher ed
70. What makes me nervous about this work
71. What I like to read connected to higher ed
72. How did I decide on my dissertation topic
73. When will it be time to go . . . . .
74. Why metropolitan universities are the future of higher ed
75. Packing for a conference – must haves
76. The most random people I have worked with on campus and why they were important
77. Why everyone thinks I am a professor
78. How to balance routine with spontaneity in high ed
79. Higher ed professional addictions
80. Five higher ed pet peeves
81. If I could erase one day in higher ed history what would it be
82. The most important day in the history of higher ed to me
83. Campus means bringing an umbrella, a condom, and a bottle of water
84. A higher ed story that always makes me laugh
85. Getting to work early and staying late
86. My favorite higher ed quote
87. Goals I have for my real life away from higher ed
88. Higher ed means never having to grow up
89. Why writing is important for higher ed people
90. International students and what we can learn from them.
91. Why higher ed work can feel so lonely
92. What was the last higher ed book I read
93. Things I learned in college that was not on the syllabus
94. How to stay higher ed organized – if you know how let me know
95. My favorite hang out spot as a grad student
96. Something that makes me uncomfortable about higher ed
97. What thing about higher ed have I changed my mind about
98. COVID FOMO
99. What have I learned about myself over the 100 days
100. What is next?