The Life of a Lame Duck

Last Tuesday, ASLC General Elections were held and the 2011-2012 President was elected. Going into it I didn’t know what to expect. The two candidates were pretty evenly matched in terms of broad experience, so there wasn’t a clear frontrunner. I think this election actually stressed me out more than my own, because I had no control over the outcome. But now that the election is behind me, there’s one thing I’m certain of:
People vastly underestimate how fun it is to be a “lame-duck” president.
For the last year, I’ve been asked to make dozens of decisions each week and most of the time I had no idea what was going on. Really, who thought it was a good idea to let 21 year-olds decide anything?! Now, I get to give advice to the new president while the pressures of making good decisions regarding hiring student leaders and managing a $400k budget are on her. Certainly, I’m doing everything I can to train her well and make the transition as smooth as possible, but the reality is that these are her decisions to make and her battles to fight.
I’ve actually asked the new president to keep a list of issues where I make a suggestion and she chooses to go another direction. I know that many recommendations were made to me that I ignored but, in retrospect, definitely should have followed. So this year, I think it would be great if there were a written record of things I’m right about.
Even with all of that, I think the best part of being a “lame-duck” is the chance to ask myself, What’s next? I’ve been able to start passing small responsibilities on to the new president, which has freed up some of my time to start pondering what I want to do with my life. I graduate in 74 days and while I am certainly ready to leave the classroom behind, there’s a gaping abyss of unknown in front of me. I appreciate having a little more free time to think about what I want my life to look like and how I’m going to get there, rather than pouring over budget sheets.