Keep plodding on.

Is this now the 4th week we have been out of school? The last few weeks are becoming a blur. The past week was a challenge in being productive with any school assignments. Life did one of it's unexpected moves with my son coming back to the Island last Monday from the mainland with 2 puppies to babysit. Guess who ended up doing the babysitting as he had to go to school! One puppy is only 15 weeks old, so you had to be aware of taking him outside to do his business every hour or so as he is going through the potty training stage. He is so tiny I had to go out with him as I was afraid an eagle would swoop down and snatch him away for a meal. Every time I sat down to try and do any work on the computer they would come and sit by my feet and bug me to play, it's like having small children. So needless to say we did lots of walks and not much homework! It made a break from the routine of the past couple of weeks , but now I have to try and find that routine again! I can't believe that this strike is still on. It sounds like things are getting a little nasty and I wonder what the atmosphere will be like at VIU when this is all over. I suppose it will all depend on what the final outcome will be and how much each side will have to sacrifice. I wonder how innovative both sides have been in trying to find solutions to the issues. Both sides will have to work on developing their strategic leadership qualities once both sides are back to work, such as being respectful, being self aware, spending time self reflecting, using effective communication, building trust and building up healthy relationships again within the organization and with the students. I wonder if either side are presently using any of the above strategies in order to move ahead. Hopefully from this experience both sides will have discovered a healthier innovative way to deal with conflict so that this situation does not happen again. It seems that some of the faculty are now putting pressure on us students that are crossing the line to come to the library. These students have been asked to park their vehicles on the side of 4th street opposite building 255. Not sure what the reasoning is for that as you still cross the picket line to get to the library! I emailed my classmates to see how the general feeling was regarding the end of year bash and the consensus was YES, LET'S DO IT. I think it is a good idea as well as I think we are all feeling demoralized and frustrated, so getting together and letting off steam is probably what we need. The other reason why I think we should do it now is there are a few people sticking to their original plans and leaving the following week. Plus there is the crowd that are heading down to Mexico at the end of the month, so it wouldn't be worth having the party later on and that would be sad. When school does resume it could be very quiet, as I just mentioned many people will not be around. I wonder how motivated we all will be when we get back at this point I am not motivated about going back, my last day is suppose to be a week today.