What's in a name? Just call me Iron Fist

One of the challenges I've had this week has been learning the names of the sixty-two students here in the program. Although it's not totally necessary--"hey you" can suffice for three weeks--as head RPA (or RA) I feel it my civic duty to make the effort. Plus, those who know say that you command more respect, love, admiration, etc., when you remember a person's name. But this week has involved more than just learning the students' monikers. Before the program began, the male RAs got together and assigned nicknames to all of the guys. We then made up pink colored buttons for them to wear, which have their nicknames prominently displayed, with their real names in small print. This has been great fun. We decided to give them nicknames either randomly or by association. In other words, we didn't use physical description or personality to name them. For examples: Kurt has become Fanzie; one student whose name sounds like a history professor here has become The Professor, so of course his roommate had to become Gilligan; and someone with a "ho" in their last name has become Santa. The other nicknames we assigned are The Franchise, Polo, Mama, Milwaukee, Bull, Knuckles, T-Bone, Frenchie, The General, Mountie, Little Italy, Magnum (his initials are P.I.), Napoleon, Little Joe, Ox, and Chili. To top it all off, my personal favorite, and a very popular nickname among us RAs, is Lunchpail. Fortunately he came to the program in rather un-rotund condition, or else I might have felt sorry for him. The guy RAs also took nicknames, which include Poland, Commodore, Baxter, and No Show. As the point man here in the dorm, the one who will be involved in any and all necessary disciplinary measures or whatever, I am Iron Fist.
At our first dorm meeting we passed out the buttons and told all the guys to wear them. We made a big thing of it, and it has been satisfying to see the lemming mentality of these guys. These otherwise cool teenagers have entered into wearing a pink nickname! Some of them were a little hesitant at first to adopt them. Little Italy, who flew in later, especially had a problem when he was presented with his. But he felt better after he heard some of the other nicknames! And all of them have adopted them to one degree or another. In fact, I just heard someone call for Mama as I am writing this. The women RPAs also adopted the nicknames. In fact, they held meetings with their girls in which they expostulated about how the Iron Fist would have to get involved in things if they didn't behave, and how you didn't want to mess with him. Pretty much everyone knows me by Iron Fist. I have quite the persona now. It's really quite amusing.
I was just displaying some of my eyebrow raising abilities to some of the students, and one of the more ditzy girls (she's a cheerleader--enough said?) expressed a desire that I would get my brows pierced so she could grab the piercings and play songs with them. Can you imagine? I laughed really hard.