Laugh in the Moment

The other day, I was sitting in my room reading for one of my classes, when one of my residents came in to talk to me.  He isn’t one of the residents that I talk to all the time, but we do talk once in a while.  Well, we’re taking a class together now, so I’ve actually gotten to know him a lot more since last quarter.  Which I’m very glad for.

He started off by just talking about the class that we are taking together, as we had a paper due the next day.  We were talking about the paper topic, and then naturally branched off into other things.  Before I knew it, we were having a conversation about family—his family, my family, families in general.  What I really like about coversations like this was that it wasn’t all about one topic. After he had told me about his family, he asked me about my family, and so I got to share some my own stories too.  Which I really appreciate.  

I’ve noticed that with a few of my residents, I know so much about them, and they know very little about me—so conversations usually consist of topics that they have.  Which is absolutely fine with me!  I don’t mind at all, because I’m here for them, and I actually really enjoy hearing about their lives, and oftentimes, helping them in some way.  WHICH I LOVE WITH ALL MY HEART.  It’s one of the best parts about being an RA.  

This conversation, however, was like a very few of the others I’ve had with residents, where they actually get to know something about me as well.  That’s not the only reason why I enjoyed the conversation so much, but it was part of it.  I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I learned alot about him, and that’s really one of the things I enjoy most about being an RA :)

It was nice :)  It may sound odd, but I also kinda learned about being a better person.

Reason Number 3: Really good conversations with residents that I don’t know as well as others, but who teach me so much :)

There were so many “why I love my residents” moments today, as it was the first day back from Winter Break.  But, there was one that happened earlier in the day that really highlighted all of it :)

I went to Ralph’s today on a grocery run.  As I was walking into the fruit section, which happens to be near the front of the store, I hear someone say my name.  ”Melanie”.  I look around and see one of my residents. :)

“HI!” I squealed in the high-pitched tone that comes with my excitement.  ”How was your break?”

“Good” my resident said.  And then I saw his mother.  ”This is my RA, and this is my mom,” he said, introducing us to each other.

“Hello” I said to his mother.  She greeted me with “Melanie, right?”  I was surprised that she already knew my name, it caught me off guard.  She said her name, and then I proceeded to talk to them.  As they were heading off into another section of the grocery store, she said “Thanks for taking care of the students on the third floor.”

:)  Excitement, happiness.  Such a simple statement, and my response was simply “Of course.”  But as my friend pointed out later, I was in fact very happy, jumpy almost, inside.  I loved it.  And it stuck with me—knowing that one of my residents had talked to their parent about me, and in apparently a good way :)

Reason Number 2: Sometimes, their parents know who I am, and then thank me for helping their child.  :)