Friday, September 17, 2004
in two hours, i learned much more about myself than i thought i knew in the past year. in two hours, i learned so much about eight peers than i thought i could ever know. in short, i am loving my ra training thus far.
i applied for this ra (resident advisor) job last year. i applied because i cherish new meetings and helping others. for those of you who don't know what i'm talking about, i am a peer advisor who oversees the incoming freshmen on campus. i live with them in the dorms and assist them with their every need. when i had first met my staff last spring, my feelings fluctuated. am i really going to enjoy this job? am i going to get along with all these people? but today changed everything.
i reflect back on the past two hours and i know i've learned more about myself and the other people on the staff. these days, no one has the time or care to reflect back on themselves, see where they stand in their life, what their beliefs are now (in comparison to the past), what they have learned, what they need to work on. we did not intend for our training to be emotional, but evidently, it was. as i shared my two cents, i realized how similar we are, as well as how different we can be. it just made me think of all the times that i had categorized some of the people i had met, without even thinking about what those people were going through or how their past has been. it was literally a slap in the face. i believe most of us have our sensitive side, but it seems that we are only sensitive to topics that are important to us, that include us. anything can be important. just because something doesn't fit your standards and needs, does not mean that a certain topic is not important to someone else. respecting all values and view, accepting differences, strengthening similarities... there are a ton of people out there, and there are infinite angles to look at a specific topic. i've learned that those voices are what add color to what would be a rather boring world. if everyone thought the same thing about every situation, life would be so boring. diversity is wonderful.
let go of familiarities. you'll be surprised at how much you can learn about the world, others, and yourself.
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