R.A Stories: It’s A Wonderful Gift!

One Sunday night I was eating dinner in the dining hall, when several of my residents approached me, expressing a desire to have a floor meeting that night. I was very impressed, as I usually have to drag them to floor meetings, and I suggested 8pm. They looked anxious and suggested 7:30. When I inquired as to what the meeting was about, they looked nervous. Then I said, “Oh, it’s probably about the issue we had on the hall over the weekend, with someone urinating in the dryer. Is that what this is all about?” They all agreed, looked relieved, and walked away. A few minutes later, some other residents came up and wanted to schedule a meeting that night as well. I told them I understood the concern for the dryer incident and that the meeting was at 7:30pm.

Around 7:25pm that night, I started knocking on doors to get people ready for the meeting, but no one was on the hall. They were all down in the lounge already. All of my 18 men were ready and waiting. This never happens; usually I have to pull teeth to get them to a floor meeting! This was surprising and impressive, so I was ready to get started! “Ok, it has come to my attention that there was an incident involving urination in the dryer on our hall this past weekend…” Then all of a sudden, I was interrupted by two residents saying that we couldn’t start yet, as we were missing one floor member who was on his way down. Puzzled, I said ok and waited for him to come down.

My resident then appears around the corner carrying a large box, with the picture of a TV on the outside of it. I was confused, as there is already a TV in the lounge. He walked over and put the box down next to me, and everyone just stared at me, not saying a word. “What guys?” I said. “Well, we got you a TV and VCR for Christmas, Hunter.”

I was so surprised - I jumped up and screamed and threw my arms around the nearest resident. I was in total shock. “We figured that you were the only one on the hall who didn’t have a TV, so we got you one. It has a remote too.” I was jumping around like I was on a trampoline. They picked up the box, ushered me upstairs, and set up the whole thing in my room while I was trying to catch my breath. They sat me down in a chair, handed me the remote, and said, “Hurry up, we’re going to miss Boston Public.”

Later, I learned that they called my parents over Thanksgiving to tell them of their scheme, and to not get me a TV or VCR for Christmas. The benefits of being an RA.