Like many college students, financing your education and life can be expensive and catch up to you. After freshman year, I decided to apply to be an RA to help mitigate cost, but also because I thought it would be a really valuable experience to work with people in ways that I haven't been exposed to before. I was really excited to start my new job. Unfortunately, a certain *thing* happened in an *unprecedented time* and my first year as an RA was during a global pandemic.

The job was still necessary, and HFS had done its best to keep their RA's safe and minimize exposure. Still, it was necessary to try to engage with residents, boost morale, and continue to be on-call and try to build relationships. This to say, it is extremely difficult to do this over Zoom (especially when trying to get people to respond to an already flooded inbox and participate in virtual programs). As a sophomore, it was also difficult to be placed in an apartments building, where most residents typically liked to keep to themselves and were upperclassmen. It taught be a lot about managing expectations and working within limits. There were bright sides: one of my residents ended up becoming one of my best friends to this day.

After being an RA, I decided to apply to be an Assistant Resident Director, essentially an upgrade where I did not have to be on-call and got paid a stipend, but more importantly worked with residents in a completely different way. The ARD assists with administrative tasks for the building, but also in managing a hall council, which meant that I would be building relationships with a select group of people on a much more regular basis and hosting building-wide programs and advocacy initiatives. It was really rewarding, and I appreciated the experience for teaching me flexibility and proactivity. I was wearing many hats at once.

That being said, it was difficult to have so many hats on. Home during college became difficult. Sometimes, you'd just want to relax in your room and not think about work or school. It can be difficult to separate that when you are an RA/ARD. Sometimes, it's as if it feels you are always on the job, in case a residents knocks on your door or other emergency issues pop up in the building that you are expected to help solve. Programs are often hosted on nights, since that is when you and most other people are available after classes. Sometimes programs happen on weekends, and you are the one organizing it. You have to build a backbone, and I think that it was very difficult, however rewarding it may have been.

That being said, in my three years at HFS, I got to talk to hundreds of students, organize two annual carnival events, hosted dozens of programs, managed thousands of dollars, and helped people find their friends, study buddies, and significant others. Who else can say that?

To the right and below are some of the pictures of my time in HFS, including hall decorations, newsletters, and posters we designed for programs!

*My hall decoration was Avatar themed back when it exploded in popularity, and some people liked to draw faces, make memes, and interact with my decorations. I thought it was hilarious.