A lot of people ask me why I'm a Tour guide. Everyone wants to know why I spend so much of my time wandering around campus backwards trailed by 10-20 prospective students and their parents....for free. To most people, giving tours seems like a silly activity that is more-or-less a waste of my time and energy.

I think they're wrong. Very, very wrong. And it's weekends like the one that just past that remind me how much I love giving tours.

Being president's day weekend and "February Break" (some shit they do on the east coast to give the kiddies more time off school), we had a shit load of visitors on campus and because i'm a nice person and love giving tours, I volunteered my entire Saturday and Monday to give tours. Yes, that means I gave 4 tours in a 52 hour span. Yes, that's a lot. But yes, it was SO much fun.

There are two parts to giving tours that I love- the performance/story-telling and the influencing of young minds (ok, and parental minds). We'll go one-by-one.

I love the stage. If anyone is going to tell me otherwise, they're just kidding themselves or else don't know me very well. I grew up on stage in community theater and school plays; nothing over the top or showy like plenty of people. In middle school I was on top of the musical theater program, but in high school, I found alternative stages. One was a football field and the other was a small classroom where I was the only performer (and there was often an audience you could count on one hand). Performing for me is a time for me to express myself in a carefree manner with this weird feeling of being judged but not being judged. It's also the attention thing, but not a "I need to be at the center of attention" mentality, more of a "you should be looking at me, I have something to say".

I knew that I couldn't give up my love for the stage and my general abilities on stage when I went to college. But without a speech team, a marching band, or a good choral program, I knew I was kinda out of luck. The admissions director for the Midwest had suggested that I look into being a tour guide, and so I kept my eyes open for opportunities. Turns out, that was the best suggestions ever made to me. Being a tour guide is my one hour each week "on stage". My audience varies in terms of size and interest, but it is my job to hook them onto my stories, my personality, and the university in general. Having the ability to talk without holding back telling stories and just performing is an incredible feeling. If I didn't get that rush every week I think I would be an unhappy person.

Plus, I just love telling stories, and when you have a captive audience that can't go anywhere, they'll listen. And let's be honest, my stories rock.

The other amazing part about being a tour guide is interacting with tons of people each semester and getting many of them hooked on GW. I love GW so effing much. Yes, there are things that I get frustrated with, and yes, some days I question if I made the right choice, but each time I give a tour, I remind myself of what I chose GW and what amazing opportunities I get as a Colonial. It's almost like a generation thing- i get to then pass on that love to future students.

I love helping students "flip the switch", as in, I love watching students start as semi-apathetic when I meet them and then end the tour completely in love. I remember I was like that on my first tour...I was bleh after the info session but then I just loved campus after walking around a bit and listening to my tour guide (who, upon reconsideration, wasn't a great guide, but whatever).

And so this weekend was kind of special. I gave 4 tours. I probably met around 50 people (20ish students, I'd say). I gave my e-mail address to 5 or 6 students. I joked around with 3 or 4 different parent/student sets. And I'm pretty sure I "sold" GW to a whole chunk of those people. Between playing Jewish geography with the HPHS junior, talking about my AMAZING classes while taking a guy and his parents to HellWell, or joking around with the last tour of the weekend, there is no doubt in my mind that I made a few people think that GW could be their home in a few years. It's a crazy feeling when you take time to step back and think of it.

But the most amazing comment of the weekend was the girl on my last tour. She had asked for my e-mail address and I was writing it down for her when she said, "You know what, I think after the tour I really like GW. It's my number one." It was the most incredible feeling. More incredible than anyone can realize. It was a moment where I was giving back to my school but I was contributing to the future of the university as well. It was also a nice self-esteem booster, not gonna lie....

It just comes down to the fact that I love being a tour guide and I really couldn't imagine my GW experience without it. :-)