RA Training

It seems like I've been doing a lot of apologizing latley for not keeping up with this as much as I should. And I guess I apologize for that, too -- apologize for apologizing too much, that is. But, it HAS been an incredibly hectic few weeks between moving and RA training. And tomorrow is the big day! Move-in day! So that's going to take hectic to a whole other level.

So far I have to say that there is far more to this position than I expected there to be. When I saw what my RA was up to last year it was always making posters and planning fun programs for the floor and walking around the building closing all the doors at 11pm for quiet hours. But, really, there's so much more than that. You never know what kinds of residents you'll have on your floor and you have to be prepared for EVERYTHING! I'm glad they do it, don't get me wrong, but there were so many situations that I never imagined I would have to deal with!

They train you on everything from rommate mediation to how to handle a suicidal resident. We had to practice removing alcohol from underage rooms, and also talking to students with concerns that their roommate has an eating disorder.

And that was just during the lecture part of training. On top of that we also had to prepare our residence halls for move-in. We had to put lables on the mailboxes, make door decs, put up posters about check-in, decorate bulletin boards, clean, rearrange furniture, plan a program for that first night after moving in, find a place for our first floor meeting, meet with the PMAC who will be with our residents during Welcome Weekend, check each room for damage and check to make each key worked in its door.

It was busy and tiring, but I actually really enjoyed it. It wasn't always great fun or anything but what was great was getting to know the people around you who are also RAs along with your fellow staffmates. There were plenty of bonding opportunities.

One of thee opportunities came when we went to a YMCA camp in Boone. We only stayed for one night, but it was great fun because we got to participate in all sorts of challengeing, team-building activities. We played some games we all know like the Human Knot and then we went up to the low ropes course. We did a few activities there and really had to work together to solve problems which was great. It was basically reinforcing everything we'd been learning that week only while having fun, instead of being talked to.

It was all enjoyable, but boy am I wiped! I think a nap is called for!