Being a resident assistant, or "RA", on campus is an interesting job. We're just like every other student, except with a whole lot more responsibility. Here are seven things all RAs want you to know:
1. You're not being sneaky, we know you're drunk.
And frankly, we don't care that much. As long as you aren't going to be so obnoxious that we have to write you up or aren't so drunk we have to call an ambulance, we could care less.
2. We're friendly people, but if you call us on the duty phone at 2 a.m., we're not going to seem friendly at all.
If you lock yourself out in the middle of the night, there's no way any of us is going to put on a happy face and deal with it. If you want to get to know us, come to our programs — but don't call while we're asleep.
3. We're not your parents.
We're not here to police your choices or do your laundry.
4. We know our programs aren't actually the coolest activities on the planet.
There's only so many things you can do in a residence hall on a budget, but you should still come. You may make a new friend, and there will probably be free food.
5. We have lives outside of being an RA.
Just like your teachers in kindergarten surprisingly had lives outside of school, your RAs have lives outside of the res halls. Sometimes we leave campus. Don't panic if we aren't in our room.
6. We judge you based on your most problematic friend.
Yeah, of course, we know how nice of a person you are, that's why we're so baffled why you're friends with that girl. You know, the one who's constantly breaking the code of conduct and starting drama?
7. We've been there.
We know college can be tough to get the hang of. We were all new students at one point in time, and we weren't always so awesome. So don't sweat your mistakes, we'll never judge you if you're learning from them.
