“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.”
(Elbert Hubbard)
Work hard and play hard!
I’ve heard this quote multiple times and decided to look it up to see who originated it. Well, it turns out that it is a bit more complicated than I thought. There is a lot written about the quote and it looks like it goes back to the 19th Century and Racine College’s motto. It was interesting to see this quote associated with the famed poet, Wiz Khalifa and his 2012 hit song, Work Hard Play Hard. 😊 Okay, that’s enough with me trying to be funny and working another Wiz Khalifa mention into a Walk into the Future blog post.
The Indian River State College Student Success Division started hosting an annual Fall Celebration in October 2021. It started as a joke between me and a coworker on the premise we should have a dance battle at work. It was funny at the time but then staff kept asking us when we were dancing. Fast forward and we hosted our 5th Annual Student Success Fall Celebration in October with a Honky Tonk theme.
We work extremely hard on enrollment, retention and completion for our students (work hard) but I want to ensure we have a semblance of balance (play hard). The Fall Celebrations allow us to relax, unwind and just have fun at work. The event continues to grow each year, and we invite our campus partners to join us and have fun.
The Honky Tonk theme was selected back in November 2024 with designs to have everyone wear their best Honky Tonk gear (think western gear with flair) and come ready to have a good time. We added karaoke to our fall celebrations two years ago and it remains a major draw for our staff members and campus partners. I never knew people love to sing karaoke as much as our folks do.
We are always looking for ways to expand our fun levels, and I reached out on a whim to a local dance organization to see if they would come in and give us some line dancing lessons. I love to line dance when I’m in Nashville and thought this would allow more folks to get involved with the fall celebration. I know everyone is not going to sing karaoke but wanted to see if the line dance aspect would get more folks up and having fun—it did! 😊
My Vice President, Beth Gaskin and I are always the opening act, and this year was no different. It took us awhile to figure out how we wanted to start the show and we went back and forth on the song we wanted to open with. I’m not a real singer so I vetoed quite a few songs before we settled on Garth Brooks, Friends in Low Places. We wanted songs that would keep everyone engaged so we added criteria for upbeat songs or party anthems. The singers did not have to perform a country song, but we wanted folks to enjoy a good party while at work. We had several folks follow our grand opening and I was impressed with the singing talent our coworkers displayed.
We stopped singing after an hour and introduced our special guest from the Wild Roses Dance Foundation. This is a local group of dance instructors who teach line dance lessons across the Treasure Coast. I found them through a local Fort Pierce brewery where they host line dance lessons every Thursday night. I went by one Thursday to check them out and then asked if they would be willing to come to our event to get our folks up and dancing. They accepted my request and were a surprise addition to the Fall Celebration.
The Wild Roses instructors provided step by step dance instructions to two separate dances and then turned the entire crew loose to dance to multiple songs. I don’t think I have seen that many smiles on the faces of my teammates! People were enjoying themselves and truly having fun at work. The ultimate image from this portion of our celebration was our President in a full suit and tie line dancing with the team. He normally comes by to see what we are up to during our Fall Celebrations. I never expected him to join the line dancing, but he was spinning and kicking like the rest of us—epic scene from the event this year! 😊
We got back to the karaoke party after line dancing and had several great performances. Beth and I wrapped up the event with our rendition of It’s 5 O’clock Somewhere by Alan Jackson and Jimmie Buffet. It was a fitting way to end the Fall Celebration and allow the crowd to sing along with us as we ended the day.
There were several folks asking what we were going to do next year. It’s a bit early to identify the 2026 Fall Celebration theme but I’m sure we will come up with something HUGE—we always do! 😊
How do you have fun at work?
Irie!
Calvin Williams
“No man goes before his time—unless the boss leaves early.”
(Groucho Marx)
Walk Into the Future 