There's the Silver Lining!

Posted by Braden

I am going to be the Resident Assistant of my hall next semester!

Typically, only people who have lived in on-campus housing for a year can become RAs, but since my current RA is leaving on his mission, I decided to apply for the position in my own hall! I filled out the application, went to the interview, and found out over Thanksgiving that I'd gotten the job! It required a few changes in my plans--I'm not allowed to take more than 16 credits, I need to take a two-credit student development class during the semester that I have the job, I'm going to be working 20 hrs/week now, and I had to adjust my plane ticket back to school so that I'll be able to get back in time for training on the Friday before the Winter semester starts, which makes my very short Christmas break even shorter! I think that all these adjustments are most definitely going to be worth it though!

It's a little scary--I'm going to be checking kids in as soon as January 2nd, and as of right now, I have absolutely no training. My training begins on, well, the 2nd! I don't know where a lot of things are, how a lot of things work, and who a lot of people are, but I'm sure it'll all come along soon enough.

It was interesting to me though, looking back at what made this opportunity possible to me. It was kind of a bummer at first that I was placed on the third floor of the hall in the very back corner campus, farthest from all of the buildings that I have class in. Had I not been in this hall, however, I wouldn't have ever thought to apply for the RA position (since my RA probably wouldn't have been leaving on a mission at the semester). At the beginning of the semester, I audition for Men's Chorus. When you audition, unless you plan on leaving on a mission, you typically agree to do it both semesters of the school year. Men's Chorus practices each day from 4-5; the student development class that you NEED to take if you want to be an RA meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-5. Had I made Men's Chorus, I wouldn't have been able to even consider this RA position, even if I had thought to look into the opportunity. And now I think that this is the best arrangement I could have hoped for from the beginning of the school year, had I known all the possible outcomes--the leadership experience I'll get, the money I'll be able to put in savings, and the chance that I'll have to lead, work with, and help the other boys in my hall would not have come easily in any other way.

Thank goodness for bad days that enable even better days in the future!