Life as an RA and General Life Lesson
What exactly does life as an RA (or RPA) entail? I'll tell you. Basically it involves a lot of eating, sitting around, sleeping, and feeling like you're not getting anything done, because often there are a lot of administrative things to do.
Basic schedule. Get students up in the morning, making sure they are out half an hour before they go on their field trip, so they can get some breakfast. Then you go to breakfast yourself. If you desire to or are asked to go because they need a driver, you might go on a fieldtrip with the students. If not, you return to the dorm and do whatever you want until they get back for lunch. This includes reading, then feeling sleepy because you are in an airconditioned room and it's rather quiet. You might pop out to the rec center to get a little exercise in. You might also read email, surf online, etc.
Lunch comes, and you take turn with other RAs going to eat, so there's always someone in the dorm. Then you come back, and if on duty that afternoon you hang around and repeat the morning's activities. There are likely to be more students in and out in the afternoon, so you might supervise them. Then comes dinner, and once again you coordinate with other RAs. Then the evening, when all are on duty and you do whatever.
Doing whatever is punctuated by a number of administrative things, including checking the other floors to see that other RAs are there on duty and ensuring that girls aren't burning down the dorm, or engaging in some such reckless activity. Sometimes there's an evening program to attend. Sometimes there are activities to coordinate. Late at night you make sure the students follow curfew, and herd them into their rooms by 11 P.M., after which time you can settle down yourself for the night.
It's pretty basic work. What makes it interesting is the students. One male student, who was also here last year, cracks me up almost every time he opens his mouth. I'll call him Tony. At the start of the program we had a floor meeting with all of the guys, and played this icebreaker, get to know you kind of game. Each guy had to take some toilet paper from a bunch that was passed around, then say one interesting fact about themself for each square of toilet paper they had taken. Tony, I should preface this by saying, never pronounces his "r's." All of his "r's" usually come out as "ah," or something like it. This is not because he's from Boston. It really only resembles a Bostonian's accent. I think it is a speech impediment that causes his accent, not because he's from any given region. Sometimes it takes real concentration to process what he is saying, but other than that you can understand him fine.
Tony gives his facts: he went to an all boys boarding school for his four years of highschool. He has a sister (or some such fact, I don't remember). Then he informs us he is having invasive nasal surgery immediately after this program. I thought that was hilarious. What kind of kid picks that as an interesting fact to share among his high school peers? It's my kind of dry humor, and I love it.
Tony is going to Stanford. THE Stanford. He got waitlisted at Harvard, and he told me he was glad this happened. His mom really wanted him to go there, and he didn't, so he's happy that he didn't get accepted and then feel like he had to go there. At the same time he's glad for ego reasons that he didn't get turned down outright. At Stanford, he's getting a full tuition scholarship, plus a quarter of his room and board. Not a bad scholarship for a school that costs about 45 grand a year.
Tony is also one of the few guys so far to not be shy about going upstairs and hanging out in the lounge areas and talking with girls. I was up there the other night when he introduced himself to a girl he hadn't met, and it was hilarious listening to his conversation, complete with dry humor. It went something like this:
T: "I'm Tony. And you are?"
C: "Cindy."
T: "Hi Cindy, nice to meet you. Where are you from?"
C: "Pennsylvania."
T: (with totally straight face, no hint of joking): "Ah, have you recovered from the jetlag yet?"
C: (a little flustered, not sure what to say) "Um, yeah..."
T: "I'm from South Carolina. You know how bad the education is there? We're fifty-first in the nation, behind Puerto Rico. They don't even speak English in Puerto Rico. I don't know how we can be fifty-first when they don't even speak English in Puerto Rico, but we are. It's pretty bad."
Given that I knew Tony had gone to boarding school in Tennessee for his entire high school career, and that he is heading to Stanford in the fall, I thought it pretty hilarious that he was categorizing himself as coming from a poor educational background. But he didn't seem to care, and the girl seemed to have no clue that SC's education system had no influence on his recent education.
In other random news, I am amazed by the number of students here who go to private, single sex high schools. I've had some conversations with some of them about the pros and cons of such a school. Most of the students seem to love it. One pro that has emerged as a theme is the fact that they can get up five minutes or less before going out the door to school, and not have to worry about grooming, what they are wearing, etc. I think there's something to be said about that. One girl talked about the fact that high school boys tend to be immature, and you don't have to worry about their presence in the classroom. I concur with that. The immaturity in the classroom usually comes from the boys. I'm considering writing a book about the need for reform in the educational system. Perhaps single sex is the way to go? And uniforms, of course.
On another note, let me inform any who cares to know about the dangers of a certain kind of worm out there. This is not a worm that you can see, or that bites into fruit of some sort. It's a computer worm. It comes to you through instant messenger, from someone on your buddy list, with a message like "click on this link to see the video I made." If you ever get such a message, even if it's from one of your friends, DO NOT EVER CLICK ON IT! I got such a message recently, and was stupid enough to click on it. At this point some of you might be saying "How stupid of you, how could you ever do that?" I consider myself fairly savvy to the dangers of viruses and worms, etc., but this one caught me unawares, as the message came from a source I trusted. It was a computer worm that infected my computer and automatically sent similar messages to a number of friends on my buddy list. This happened despite the fact that I had good antivirus software up and running! I took my computer to the tech guys here, and they told me that the only way to get rid of this worm is to rebuild my operating system (i.e., reinstall it), which means that I will end up losing everything that is currently on my hard drive. Yes, everything! And until I get it fixed I cannot connect to the internet, as the worm does nasty stuff, trying to infect others, when it is connected. (I'm using a borrowed computer now.) So that's kind of a bummer. The good news is that the computer has not crashed, so I should be able to back up all critical files before I restore everything. And I don't have many critical files, if any, that haven't been backed up already. But I guess several years worth of emails will be erased. I am unaware of any way to back those up. So reader, learn from my errors if you are not already aware of these nasty worms.
Basic schedule. Get students up in the morning, making sure they are out half an hour before they go on their field trip, so they can get some breakfast. Then you go to breakfast yourself. If you desire to or are asked to go because they need a driver, you might go on a fieldtrip with the students. If not, you return to the dorm and do whatever you want until they get back for lunch. This includes reading, then feeling sleepy because you are in an airconditioned room and it's rather quiet. You might pop out to the rec center to get a little exercise in. You might also read email, surf online, etc.
Lunch comes, and you take turn with other RAs going to eat, so there's always someone in the dorm. Then you come back, and if on duty that afternoon you hang around and repeat the morning's activities. There are likely to be more students in and out in the afternoon, so you might supervise them. Then comes dinner, and once again you coordinate with other RAs. Then the evening, when all are on duty and you do whatever.
Doing whatever is punctuated by a number of administrative things, including checking the other floors to see that other RAs are there on duty and ensuring that girls aren't burning down the dorm, or engaging in some such reckless activity. Sometimes there's an evening program to attend. Sometimes there are activities to coordinate. Late at night you make sure the students follow curfew, and herd them into their rooms by 11 P.M., after which time you can settle down yourself for the night.
It's pretty basic work. What makes it interesting is the students. One male student, who was also here last year, cracks me up almost every time he opens his mouth. I'll call him Tony. At the start of the program we had a floor meeting with all of the guys, and played this icebreaker, get to know you kind of game. Each guy had to take some toilet paper from a bunch that was passed around, then say one interesting fact about themself for each square of toilet paper they had taken. Tony, I should preface this by saying, never pronounces his "r's." All of his "r's" usually come out as "ah," or something like it. This is not because he's from Boston. It really only resembles a Bostonian's accent. I think it is a speech impediment that causes his accent, not because he's from any given region. Sometimes it takes real concentration to process what he is saying, but other than that you can understand him fine.
Tony gives his facts: he went to an all boys boarding school for his four years of highschool. He has a sister (or some such fact, I don't remember). Then he informs us he is having invasive nasal surgery immediately after this program. I thought that was hilarious. What kind of kid picks that as an interesting fact to share among his high school peers? It's my kind of dry humor, and I love it.
Tony is going to Stanford. THE Stanford. He got waitlisted at Harvard, and he told me he was glad this happened. His mom really wanted him to go there, and he didn't, so he's happy that he didn't get accepted and then feel like he had to go there. At the same time he's glad for ego reasons that he didn't get turned down outright. At Stanford, he's getting a full tuition scholarship, plus a quarter of his room and board. Not a bad scholarship for a school that costs about 45 grand a year.
Tony is also one of the few guys so far to not be shy about going upstairs and hanging out in the lounge areas and talking with girls. I was up there the other night when he introduced himself to a girl he hadn't met, and it was hilarious listening to his conversation, complete with dry humor. It went something like this:
T: "I'm Tony. And you are?"
C: "Cindy."
T: "Hi Cindy, nice to meet you. Where are you from?"
C: "Pennsylvania."
T: (with totally straight face, no hint of joking): "Ah, have you recovered from the jetlag yet?"
C: (a little flustered, not sure what to say) "Um, yeah..."
T: "I'm from South Carolina. You know how bad the education is there? We're fifty-first in the nation, behind Puerto Rico. They don't even speak English in Puerto Rico. I don't know how we can be fifty-first when they don't even speak English in Puerto Rico, but we are. It's pretty bad."
Given that I knew Tony had gone to boarding school in Tennessee for his entire high school career, and that he is heading to Stanford in the fall, I thought it pretty hilarious that he was categorizing himself as coming from a poor educational background. But he didn't seem to care, and the girl seemed to have no clue that SC's education system had no influence on his recent education.
In other random news, I am amazed by the number of students here who go to private, single sex high schools. I've had some conversations with some of them about the pros and cons of such a school. Most of the students seem to love it. One pro that has emerged as a theme is the fact that they can get up five minutes or less before going out the door to school, and not have to worry about grooming, what they are wearing, etc. I think there's something to be said about that. One girl talked about the fact that high school boys tend to be immature, and you don't have to worry about their presence in the classroom. I concur with that. The immaturity in the classroom usually comes from the boys. I'm considering writing a book about the need for reform in the educational system. Perhaps single sex is the way to go? And uniforms, of course.
On another note, let me inform any who cares to know about the dangers of a certain kind of worm out there. This is not a worm that you can see, or that bites into fruit of some sort. It's a computer worm. It comes to you through instant messenger, from someone on your buddy list, with a message like "click on this link to see the video I made." If you ever get such a message, even if it's from one of your friends, DO NOT EVER CLICK ON IT! I got such a message recently, and was stupid enough to click on it. At this point some of you might be saying "How stupid of you, how could you ever do that?" I consider myself fairly savvy to the dangers of viruses and worms, etc., but this one caught me unawares, as the message came from a source I trusted. It was a computer worm that infected my computer and automatically sent similar messages to a number of friends on my buddy list. This happened despite the fact that I had good antivirus software up and running! I took my computer to the tech guys here, and they told me that the only way to get rid of this worm is to rebuild my operating system (i.e., reinstall it), which means that I will end up losing everything that is currently on my hard drive. Yes, everything! And until I get it fixed I cannot connect to the internet, as the worm does nasty stuff, trying to infect others, when it is connected. (I'm using a borrowed computer now.) So that's kind of a bummer. The good news is that the computer has not crashed, so I should be able to back up all critical files before I restore everything. And I don't have many critical files, if any, that haven't been backed up already. But I guess several years worth of emails will be erased. I am unaware of any way to back those up. So reader, learn from my errors if you are not already aware of these nasty worms.
posted by redsoxwinthisyear at 5:07 PM
6 Comments:
Cool post! I didn't realize you got paid to do, well, so little. :-) Sweet deal.
Just so you know...if you're using the same old email program that most of us are, then there IS a very easy way to back up your emails.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sorry bout that last comment I tried to delete... I messed up and thought of more to say afterwards too. So now:
I'm in agreement with your education reforms! I wrote an essay my senior year about why we should have uniforms in school....
Sorry about the virus, but thanks for the warnings.
And hope you keep enjoying your litte job :)
Um, why would you say that the GIRLS would be burning down the dorm?! Now that was a sexist comment. One more reason to have all girls' schools!
Nice try KMS, but hardly a sexist comment, considering I'm living on the same floor as the guys, so don't need to check to insure they are not burning down the dorm.
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