If you're new to college or you have been there for a few years, there's one person on campus you will become really familiar with. Your RA. Your RA lives in your hall and does so much for you; they do things you don't even know about. Here are some of the reasons you should show some appreciation to them throughout the year!

Decorations

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This may seem obvious, but a lot of people do not realize the effort RAs put into the bulletin boards and decorations on the hall. I recently just spent an hour hand-cutting thirty-something circles out for a bulletin board. Also, if your RA is anything like me, they have more than one board to do within a short few weeks.

Safety

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Weather you realize it or not, RAs are some of the first people who are concerned with your safety. We walk the buildings every night to make sure there is nothing going awry. We're always being conscious about what is going on in the building in case of emergency. We're the first people you call when there is an emergency.

Rounds

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Speaking of safety, RAs do rounds every night. At our school, we do rounds at 7pm, 10pm, 12am, and 2am. We're getting up in the middle of the night to make sure everyone is safe and abiding by policy. We also are taking phone calls as well in case someone needs to report something.

Training

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As a RA we go through training every semester. Training is intense. We're sitting in presentations every day, all day for nearly two weeks. We also have BCDs where we walk into a scenario and have to respond. These scenarios range from alcohol to suicide ideations.

Lock-Out

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Who do you call when you get locked out of your building? Your roommate isn't home and you don't have any friends who live in the same building. You call the RA. When you get locked out RAs are the first people you call and we stop everything we're doing to make sure you get back into the building.

Programs

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RAs are constantly planning programs for their residents to attend. At our school, RAs do three programs a month! So for that, you can never say you don't have time to meet your RA and get to know them, or that they don't care. We spend hours planning these events to make sure you have fun and can learn something while still being in your residence hall.

There are a million things RAs do. We do all of the above while still attending class and cultivating our personal lives with friends and family. Some of us, like me, have extracurricular activities we also have to tend to. So when you see your RA, make sure you say hello. Maybe even thank them for all the work they put into making your residence hall as safe and as fun as they possibly can. It would mean more than you realize.