Text Only

Talk about how the events of recent months have affected either your work or your ability to work.

COVID-19 shifted the role of an RA from a student leader and community builder to that of a police. At the age of 19 I have been asked to watch and discipline students my age or a year younger than me who are just trying to have a college experience. Adolescents tend to engage in risky behaviours when they feel out of control, and right now that is definetly the case, so I understand where the restlessness comes from, but there's two things. One, they are being more reckless than we were last year. They are sleeping with each other like crazy, and normally I'm all for shameless sexuality, but right now? Having relations with multiple partners? With 8? All of which are also having relations with other people, and sharing drugs, and going out to parties? Yeah...that's stressful as all f*** to think about. Second, I am also an adolescent that wants to be stupid sometimes. There have been so many times where I was on the boarder of, "okay, if we get tested and then go to a party and get tested again hopefully we'll be okay...Everyone else keeps doing it and nothing is happening". But because I have to be the authority figure I have to lead by example so I can't do anything. At the beginning of the year students complained that they felt they were being watched by the RAs, but we are moreso. If we slip up once we lose our standing in being able to enforce the compact, so I'm constantly looking over my shoulder. Where there should've been the opportunity to connect, we've only created a rift, and although I do have a few students that I've been able to build relationships with, many of them are simply off limits to me. Especially my residents that are in Greek life who, in a normal year we'd probably get along amazingly, but because of this we can't. Also because of COVID, almost none of the sophmores are here. I went from having a college friend group to having one close friend and several singular friendships that I sometimes catch up with. I feel alone.