I Am the Fun Nazi

Disclaimer: As I am writing this post, I have been awake for 35 hours straight, so I deeply apologize for any errors or anything that sounds completely unreasonable. ;)
As some of you may know, I am a Graduate student at Concord that is working an assistantship as a Resident Director to pay my way through school. Although I sometimes have to convince myself that I am not working slave labor, I enjoy what I do. It has been a great way to pay for my education as well as gain invaluable work experience in Student Affairs/Higher Education. Being a full-time student is stressful, but to put a full-time job on top of it almost pushes me to my limits. Adding to the challenge is the fact that Residence Life is not like any other job out there. It simply has no end. There are no scheduled hours; it is a 24 hour, 7 days a week gig. It is not abnormal for me to be awake dealing with a situation all night long, only to head to class and then the office. In the residents' eyes, because I live in the residence hall, I am their mom/nurse/therapist/servant at all hours.

Working in residence life is also difficult because our job description is so broad, and in a way vague. I am an administrator, mediator, janitor, corrections officer, tutor, mom, friend, etc. I simply never know what I will encounter. I have seen it all in my 6 years of experience...several things that I would have rather never had to. I have trudged through floods and have evacuated buildings as they burned.I have had to hold students up to prevent them from aspirating in their own vomit when they drank too much. I have had to break it to a girl that her mother had passed away. Once I even held a girl as she passed in and out of consciousness when she tried to end her life. I have been cussed, spit at, pepper sprayed, and thrown up against walls.

These are just a few of the things I have experienced, most of which occurred when I was a scared undergraduate. Still, as an adult, I get scared. For all of the things my staff and I deal with, you think we would be heroes, or at least respected. But, the truth is, it is the exact opposite. To outsiders, we get paid to do nothing, we are know-it-all goody-two-shoes, and fun wrecking Nazis. Honestly, it hurts. These people don't see the hours we have invested, the sacrifices we have made, the tears we have cried. Sometimes they are the same ones we end up taking care of. How ironic...

I suppose I am on this rant because of an incident that I dealt with in the wee hours of the morning. The details do not matter even if I could share them, however I believe it points to an overall issue, APPRECIATION and RESPECT. You probably do not live in a dorm, so these principles don't affect you in that way, but I ask that you remember all of the men and women that sacrifice so much to keep us safe. Our law enforcement officers, fire fighters, military, teachers, housing staff...they all give so much that we just cannot comprehend because we do not see everything that they do. Take a minute to thank them. They deserve it.