During my freshmen year of college I was introduced to the infamous group of individuals working on campus that are known as Resident Assistants or RA's. Mostly everyone in college knows what an RA is and many students aren't too fond of them. RA's are sometimes looked down upon because they are often known as campus cops, fun suckers, terrible people,etc. The truth of the matter is that most RA's are in the same boat as other college students except for the fact that they chose to get involved in the residential aspect of college because of certain incentives or just because they want to better their leadership skills.
Despite all the bad rumors about RA's I was quite fond of my RA my freshman year. He was a very laid back guy but at the same time he knew all the rules and regulations that came with the job and he created some interesting programs that I attended. As the year went on I began to socialize with more and more of the RA staff and I began to become very interested in the whole RA process. I began hanging out more with the staff and I started asking all the necessary questions which later led to me applying for the RA job on campus despite all the people who thought I should do otherwise.
To be extremely honest I had never been more nervous when I went through the application process. Over a hundred other students were applying for several RA positions on campus and it didn't seem as if the odds were in my favor. I went through the group interviews and then the individual interview and tried my best to answer questions like I was the only man for the job and as my luck came through I ended up getting the job. Unfortunately for me the nerves didn't stop there because after my summer vacation I had to complete 2 weeks of RA training which literally made me freak out because after talking to all the returning RA's and hearing horror stories about terrible residents I began to think about how scary being an RA could be. I started creating all these wild scenarios in my head about crazy and absurd incidents that I would stumble upon but after a few good talks with some of the professional staff I began to ease up on the nerves.
After training week my duty as an RA officially started and after I met all of my residents my worries faded away and I embraced my new duties as an RA. I met with my residents, held floor meetings, created group texts, and spent quality time with most of them during the first week. It was actually a great time learning about the different people living in the same building as me. I learned about their interests and their hobbies and realized that most of us had a lot in common with each other. As of right now I've experienced smooth sailing as there haven't been any incidents I had to report and I truly hope that it stays this way throughout the semester. Just these beginning weeks of being an RA has taught me so much about social skills and leadership skills and I'm certain I'll learn much more!
