If you have ever lived in an on-campus residence hall, you have had an RA. These brave men and women sacrifice their time and energy to make sure you are safe, happy, and maybe not healthy, but at least alive. We organize events, make bulletin boards and door decs, do paperwork, resolve conflicts, and the list goes on and on. You may think of us as the up-tight people at the end of the hall that get you in trouble all the time, but we are so much more than that. Here is a list of things that your RA wishes you knew, compiled with the help of my other staff members:
1. We take time to make bulletin boards.
There are times when our schedule gets away from us, and our bulletin boards aren't the best they can be. Most of the time, however, we put time and effort into coming up with fun, creative, and/or helpful bulletin boards for you. When you tear them down, you tear down a little piece of our heart. OK, maybe not, but you do tear down a lot of hard work, and we have to now put in more work to fix it.
2. We care about you.
We don't bother you for no reason. When we ask about how life is going or what classes are bothering you or how things are at home, we are asking because we genuinely care. If you are having problems, come talk to us. There is no problem too small or too big. We want to help you out, and we want to hear about all the good things in your life too.
3. We aren't your parents.
We do care about you, but we are not responsible for your day-to-day activities. You are an adult, and you are responsible for doing your homework, studying for exams, showering, doing laundry, not making messes in the hallway, etc. We are here to guide you, give you advice, and be a friend. We are not here to pick up your trash in the hallway. Stop throwing trash in the hallway.
4. We know more than you think we know.
This may sound a little creepy, but it's true. All the things you think you're getting away with, we know about them. We can't catch you doing them, but we know. All the drama that goes on between rooms and floors, we know. You went out on Thursday night, got super trashed and didn't go to class Friday? We know that, too. We are not oblivious to your antics. The walls are thin.
5. We don't want to get you in trouble (and it's not our fault if you get in trouble).
You have never experienced writing an incident report, so you don't know how much we don't want to get you in trouble. Besides the fact that we care about you and don't want you to have to go through student conduct, incident reports are the worst. The thing is though, you are the one who made the decisions that brought you to where you are. If we just gave you a warning or "let you off just this once," there's a chance we could lose our job. For many of us, this job is how we manage to stay in school. Your actions are not worth our college education.
6. We love getting to know you.
College is the place where people of all kinds gather, live together, and form communities. We want to know where you come from, your likes and dislikes, and what you want to do with your future. This information helps us design a better community for you and make sure that you are getting the most out of your college experience. Please talk to us! We really do want to know things about you!
7. We want you to come to events.
We put a lot of time and effort into designing fun things for you to do. These events help build community and help us get to know you. They actually are fun! And a lot of times, there's free food. Always come for free food.
8. We want your feedback.
If you think there are things we can improve on, bulletin boards you'd like to see, events you think would be good for everyone to go to, or anything you'd like to tell us, please tell us! We value you and your opinions. Now, if you tell us that we should never have quiet hours or that underclassmen should be allowed to drink without any consequences, we will listen, but don't expect that to actually happen. Helpful feedback is what will actually, you know, be helpful.
9. Our jobs don't define us as people.
We are RAs, but we are also students and athletes. We're in Greek life and student government, and we're involved in social justice issues and campus programming. We have other jobs and internships. We have families and friends. We have personalities. We are people, just like you. Come talk to us sometime! We promise we won't document you for knocking on our door.
