Confessions of A Tour Guide

"Alright so we are going to head into the building that is directly behind me. This is Watson Hall and it is our main hub for all the Residential Suites here at Slippery Rock. The reason it is so is because located inside Watson Hall is the Office of Residence Life and the ID Card Office."

My tour group and I

That is just one of my few tag lines that I say while I give tours to prospective students and parents at my job as a Pride Guide. I don't think that I ever would have expected that I would be giving tours of the university to parents and their children. Who am I kidding? I am a shy, reserved kid that doesn't do well with strangers and basic conversation...boy was I wrong.

My career as a Pride Guide started the summer before my Junior year of college and have loved it ever since. Considering the fact that, I never in a million years saw myself standing (I mean walking backwards in front of people) speaking about why I love this campus so much and explaining all the fun facts about it, I was very nervous about this job.

I was givin' one accelerated training day and the next day I was on my own. I'll be the first one to tell you that my first tour was AWFUL! I have never been more embarrassed and felt so unprepared for something in my life. *On a side note, if you were in my group on my first day, please please please come back. I'm a lot better at my job now* Despite the struggle of my first day, I stuck with this job and continue to excel in it. 

So this really isn't meant to be a story about sticking with something and not quitting just because it's difficult, no, this is to really just express what this job has done for me and what I feel it can do for others. 

As a tour guide we learn all these facts about he campus not just for our own enjoyment or just because we always bleed Green and White and are supposed to be those staple students for the university. We learn all these things so that we can help to express our love for this campus and that hopefully the prospective students can feel that and gain that same level of love that we have for the university. When I was looking at colleges, Slippery Rock was the last school I visited. It wasn't my last school because I was "fed" up with looking at schools or just tried of the whole college search thing as a whole, this was my last school because when I was done with my tour I knew that this is where I wanted to go. I still wish I could remember the name of the guy who gave me my tour that day and thank him for helping me make one of the best decisions of my life and that because of him I'm following the path that I am on here at Slippery Rock University. 

That is why I love this job.  I hope that with every tour I give I can make someone fall in love with the campus just like I did, many years ago.