New RA in Town!

On December 21st, I got the best Christmas present ever – a phone call offering me a position as a Resident Assistant at The College of Saint Rose! I was so thrilled; I had applied last Spring and again this past Fall, and had finally reached my goal! It seems that a constant pattern in my life is that I am delayed – I usually accomplish many things and reach my goals, but it always takes a little extra hard work and more time than others. Regardless, I was thrilled to finally gain the position and thrilled to get started.

Coming back to school for RA training was difficult, mainly because I enjoyed being home so much. Once I was back in Albany, though, I felt right back at home. My mom was nice enough to travel up with me and help me move from 974 Madison Ave to 968 Madison Ave. I was very lucky because not only did I move two houses over, but I moved into one of the nicest houses on campus! 968 is recently renovated, has spacious rooms, and an amazing atmosphere. I was very blessed in being placed in that house. While moving was tough, my Mom and I made it fun and got to enjoy Albany.

What my new room at 968 Madison Ave. looks like! It’s nice to have a single room all to myself 🙂 (although I miss my old roommate terribly)

After moving, I jumped right into RA training. Learning all of the new rules and regulations was a bit overwhelming at first. I was lucky enough to have two other people become RAs with me, and together we tackled the new policies and procedures that had to be ingrained into our brains. Then, the most awkward part of the entire training session occurred – when all of the other RAs came back for a dinner social. It was awkward mainly because I didn’t know many people; they were all friends with each other, and I was friends with maybe two people. However, I learned right away how friendly and caring the RA community was; the other RAs took me under their wing and made me feel right at home. We all tackled RA training together, having good times and making fun memories. One of the best parts about this position is bonding with your zone. The College campus is divided into 5 Zones, and the RAs from each zone have weekly staff meetings to discuss future events, the duty schedule, and to have a lot of fun. Everyone in my zone is super nice and have been very supportive this entire process. Ian, my Area Coordinator, has been a great support to me as well. Everyone at this college as a whole is very supportive and caring, and I am so lucky to be involved with such a great community.

While I was training to be a RA, many insecurities were building up inside of me – Would my residents like me? Will they respect me? Will they break the rules all the time? Will they hate me? Well, it turned out I had nothing to worry about! All of my residents are very nice and very welcoming. They loved having me there, too; the majority of them commented about how happy they are with having a nice, bubbly RA. My first house meeting was a great success, and my residents are very excited for the future floor programs. I am very blessed to have been given not only a great opportunity, but a great house and great residents. I publicly pledge on this blog post to be the best RA I can be, and to represent The College of Saint Rose to the best of my ability!

My new house! It’s so pretty! I love it so much 🙂