RA-ing

Being a Resident Assistant, a Residential Life live-in staff member, is both a blessing and a curse. I'm living in a freshman dorm this year, and being back on campus with freshmen has been endlessly rewarding: I am cried on, loathed, laughed with, poked, prodded, teased, relied on, and loved. Granted, I am also pulled out of my bed to let residents into their locked rooms at all hours of the night, required to meet various conditions so that Res Life has favorable statistics at the end of the year, and responsible for sending overly-drunk students to the hospital, which, at one particularly poignant moment, happened while I was dressed up as George Washington and NOT on-call. That's the thing about being an RA: you're always on-call. Even when you're just taking a stroll across campus on an average Thursday night, sipping lemonade, dressed up as George Washington, with two staff members back in your dorm officially on duty for the night. There's just no escaping it.

The RA Staff of Alumni Court South this year.
Photo c/o Erin Swide/Caitlyn Pedone

Aside from my list of bizarre RA experiences, though, there are some pretty cool things about the job. As I like to put it, the responsibilities of Resident Assistants essentially fall into three categories: 1. Creating programs/events for students to attend (this includes, but is not limited to, organizing, budgeting, marketing, and facilitating said programs); 2. Appropriately confronting and/or referring counseling/psychological concerns; and 3. Making sure that students are following University/state policy, and documenting the situation (i.e. telling your boss about it) when they aren't. You'll notice that these duties all contribute to the same goal, that is, making sure that residents are having an awesome year. Providing fun (and sometimes free!) stuff to do, encouraging -relative- sanity, and ensuring overall safety and moderate tameness can only enhance the good times, right?

Sample fliers from RA-ing last year

Of course, I encourage you to take my sanity comment with a grain of salt; this founding father's perception of "relative sanity" is very, very relative.

Foodstuffs

For the first time in two years, I do not have a kitchen. In response, like a starving person, or perhaps just a procrastinating college student, I have taken to obsessively reading recipes/viewing food photography online. Thankfully, my ex-housemate Joe has a kitchen (ironic for a man who does not EVER cook!) and has invited me to use it as I wish. We've settled on this Thursday for the first what will hopefully become a series of dinners. But what to make!?!?!?

Photo c/o thelittleteochew.com

Put simply, I want something light and I want something fall. The cafeteria, where I now eat all of my meals, is pretty good at serving hefty meat-and-potatoes dishes every night, a gesture I generally appreciate since they seem to screw up anything more complicated than a slab of beef with a side of mash. Joe would be elated for me to serve some rendition of the latter, in fact, he'll probably request something "meaty" and specifically "non-ethnic."

Photo c/o greedygourmet.com

Luckily for him, I'm not going the 'ethnic' route. I don't even want to think about buying spices that are unheard of in the Belmont area of the Bronx, many of which used to fill my cupboard. Instead, I've decided on two recipes that caught my attention: mushroom risotto and butternut squash soup. My internship boss ordered butternut squash soup for lunch last week and I was salivating: so smooth! So sweet! So fall! Regarding Joe's impending "meat" concern, I'll sear some steak and throw it on top of the risotto just for him.

Photo c/o dessertsforbreakfast.com

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll get to the fig, mascarpone, and pistachio tart this week. I'm hoping to make it for my family when I have more time and ingredients at my disposal. When I told my mom of this plan, she responded, "Who will eat it?" Well, for one, me. Any other takers?

Business of Giving

Along with the back-to-school craziness, there comes, of course, awesome events. This past week, Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS shoes, visited Fordham and revealed how he molded TOMS shoes into a success. Like so many other "success" stories, TOMS came out of the blue. Mycoskie was working for an online driving school company when he had the idea in Argentina and, on impulse, he had an Argentine man named Jose produce a couple hundred shoes that he could sell back in America. By chance, the press got involved and, in Mycoskie's words, "made it seem like TOMS was a real company." The phenomenon basically took off from there.

Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS
image c/o sarahslaundry.com

Now TOMS has sold over a million shoes and has given over a million away to shoe-less people in Argentina and Africa alike. And, while Mycoskie is proud of his accomplishments, he has his sights set on greater success. He's started an eyewear company and written a book, the proceeds from which will go to start other philanthropy-based grassroots campaigns. According to Mycoskie, his success lies in TOMS' foundation of giving. If more companies put giving at the core of their mission rather than writing large, tax-exempt checks at the end of the year, he claims they would attract invested customers who become advertising agents through word of mouth. As TOMS has exemplified, Mycoskie's logic works.

image c/o toms.com

I should mention, too, that Mycoskie began TOMS in L.A. with the help of three interns who were willing to stick around and work out of his boat-apartment. Sometimes, unpaid, grassroots work really is worth it.

Joy and Peace

School has started again. And, just like that, I'm back into it: the rush, the endless emails, the late nights, the piles of reading. It's like some kind of hurricane, building up from afar and then hitting hard all at once. Granted, this is the last time I'll be starting a fall semester for awhile, and, while that's consoling, it doesn't quite combat the knowledge that I still have to get through this semester and then another before the craziness finally ceases and I'm home-free. Needless to say, I'm needing a lot more than the hope of graduation to keep myself afloat right now.

I ran across part of this entry on pinterest the other day, and reading the whole chapter was pretty calming. For a few moments, unanswered texts and my long list of things to do stopped buzzing around, and I was granted silence. A pretty sweet gift in the midst of anxiety, huh?

Joy and Peace
Rejoice in the lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!
Your kindness shall be known to all. The Lord is near.
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, in prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the peace of God will be with you.

-Philippians 4:4-9

"Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, in prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Phew.

New Kid on Campus

Well, I'm not exactly new. But this is my first time on campus in two years, and it's also my first time in a dorm since I was a freshman. And now I'm an RA, and I have my own room, and I'm faced with a totally new set of responsibilities, and I'm a senior instead of a freshman.
In many ways, I feel new.

I Hate Finals

Everyone hates finals. To celebrate, I'm highlighting some of the best finals-hating statuses posted on Facebook this week:

Ryan: is doing that thing he does, where he thinks out an entire future and idealizes it in order to procrastinate and/or justify his actions.

Moira: well i WAS on a roll....

Joe: Still outlining my sources, no thesis yet, and the paper's due at 10 AM. This is what I get for choosing to research demonology: God punishes me for seeking knowledge of evil and Satan screws me over.

Steve: My take home finals are offensively difficult.

Kristin: Oh good. An hour and 4 minutes to write 6 pages. Good.

And, last but not least,

Ryan: Good morning Oversleeping and Feeling-Like-Sh*t,
Go screw yourselves and then make me cereal.
Love, Ryan

What's that saying about laughing in times of trouble???
Best of luck to you during these last grueling weeks before the holiday.