Congratulations! You are now a Resident Assistant at Salisbury University. After the long process of deciding to apply, spending eight hours at Process Day, getting judged harshly by your current RAs (with the intention of becoming colleagues with them in the future), attending a nerve-racking interview with the top dogs of Residence Life, and, finally, surviving the moment of truth when you see your acceptance or alternate letter in the mailbox. From there, you become desperate to know what your hall assignment will be and who else is on your staff. You start taking the RA class every Wednesday with people you've never seen before but will definitely see a lot of by the time training is over.
After postponing all of your responsibilities during the summer, it looks like it's time to head back to school three weeks earlier than everybody else for Camp Pecometh. You learn to "challenge by choice" and really test yourself while walking on a wire 30 feet above the ground. You start to learn names, do the wackiest ice-breaker games (Res Life loves ice breakers), and you receive your designated high five buddy! For most of you, the sleeping in cabins and the constant attack of mosquitoes are not ideal, but there really isn't any better way to get to know your fellow RA's, Resident Directors, Area Directors, and other members of Pro-staff than sitting around a bonfire watching shooting stars and eating s'mores.
Once you finally return to the real world and get your phone back after 3 days without communication with the outside world, the hard work begins. From 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., you sit in classrooms learning about program planning, incident reports and of course the infamous "Title IX". Any down time is spent decorating your building or making your resident's door decs (or door tags). Every night is spent rehearsing the True Life skit in Holloway and several people cramming themselves into the dye-cut room trying to make their bulletin boards. The next few weeks are tedious and repetitive and down right exhausting, but none of that compares to move in day where you have to apply everything you learned in training.
Now the residents are here. And if you're a first year, that's kind of nerve-wracking. You're a "resource to the entire community" and have a pile of papers that need to get done in the first six weeks...as well as a social program every week. It's time to get creative. Balancing roommate contracts, suitemate contracts, resident connections, programs, staff meetings, committee meetings, one-on-ones and lobby duty WHILE also trying to maintain a high GPA and a social life is tough. How many times do you find yourself saying "Sorry I can't, I'm on duty"? Or "Sorry I can't, I have a meeting", or even "Sorry change of plans, I have an incident to deal with"?
As an RA, you live on campus now while the majority of your friends live off campus. Do people always assume you only hang out with residents and other RAs? Do you ever find yourself saying "No, off-campus RA's are not the same as on-campus RAs"? You are constantly surrounded by freshmen which means you always have to expect the unexpected. Has someone torn down your resident's door tag? You' just have to make a new one and move on. You smell something funny? Call University Police. Are there loud and suspicious noises coming from a room? Ask for back up and investigate together. You do your job. Period.
As a Salisbury RA, you know how quickly you can get done a round in your building. You're know what MUCA stands for. You know there's a difference between the #quadsquad and MAPOWI. You know how quickly eating at Commons gets boring. You know how to come up with a random program at the very last second. You know the reggae ringtone of the duty phone. You know the difference between an incident report and an FYI email. You know if you see a resident at a party, you leave. You know what an LLC is. You know how impossible it can be to get homework done at the duty desk. You know how to plan a program with a very small budget. You know how to check out a temp. card. You know only the best kind of people come visit you on duty. You know how much money you lose to taxes on your paycheck. You know that it's a "residence hall" and not a "dorm".
But let's face it, the paycheck isn't why you do the job. Resident Assistants are the unsung heroes of the campus community. You don't get paid enough for all the work you do and you DEFINITELY don't get enough recognition for all the things you put up with. Yet here you are; you're an RA. You're here, and maybe that's because of the Res Life family you quickly become, the lasting friendships you've made, the responsibility and purpose the job gives you, or your own personal reasons. Despite the sacrifices you make on a daily basis, you're an RA and you should be proud of that.
