It’s August and all the RAs are creating their door decorations from their floor rosters. Just lists of names with no faces or descriptions to go with them. Like the participants of Love is Blind, they are hopeful they will find people they connect with, sight unseen.
The RAs start to imagine what their floors will look like for the year. They imagine a hall full of energetic residents, ready to join every program, take advantage of every resource, and rely on the RA enough for the RA to feel needed but also not enough where they are always bothering the RA. On the other end, they fear the worst – a floor that never leaves their rooms, residents who don’t connect with each other. Or, residents who break all the rules – smoking in the hall, throwing huge parties, and always being loud. Every scenario can be imagined until move in day when the reveal finally happens and the RAs get to meet their residents and see if they will connect!
Like each couple on Love is Blind, each RA will have a totally unique and often unexpected story. Here are some examples:
RA Andy meets her floor and it’s all football players. Unintentionally she utters an “oh no”. This is not the floor she planned out. She is immediately worried about her Strawberry Shortcake theme on her floor. How would she connect with her floor of mainly football guys when she hasn’t played a sport since 1st grade?
RA Marigold starts to meet her floor, one resident at a time, and is impressed by their confidence and loud personalities. As she asks them about themselves she starts to realize they are all theater majors. RA Marigold is on the soccer team and would define her personality as sporty all the way. She has never in her life gone to a play. How would she connect?
During the first floor meeting, the residents on RA Mateo’s floor are introducing themselves and RA Mateo is getting increasingly excited. This floor is his dream. This is a gamer floor. They all play the same video games and even share the same interests in board games. The year is going to be smooth sailing for sure!
These are the reveals. The instant assumptions are made. The RAs can now picture what they think their year will look like with their floors. They are starting to make plans to fit the personality of their floors. They begin to worry about some of the stereotypes that come with games, athletes, thespians, etc. They are worried and excited and assume they know what is coming.
Of course, as the semester commences, and the honeymoon phase begins (or ends), the RAs quickly realize their assumptions are mostly wrong.
RA Andy is shocked to realize her residents are not all football players. The football players on her floor are just big. She quickly learns while they are loud and sometimes intimidating, their noise comes from excitement. They are the first to show up to programs, to respond to messages in the floor chat, and to say hello to RA Andy. While RA Andy was nervous about connecting with the football players at first, she now comes to rely on them to bring the energy to floor events and to bring her joy when she bumps into them on campus. This is a floor she never would have wished for, and it has turned out to be the only floor she could ever want.
RA Marigold finds that her residents are constantly breaking the noise policy on the floor. At first she is nervous about confronting them, but when she tells them to quiet down, they are always excited to see her and quick to quiet down. RA Marigold attended as many plays and musicals as she could to see her residents perform. She found she really enjoyed them. What she didn’t expect is that her residents were so grateful for her attendance and support, that they returned the favor. Every home game, she was shocked to see so many residents from her floor with big signs that said “RA Marigold is the best sports player!” Having the support of her floor brought her close to tears every game.
RA Mateo was excited for the year to commence to quickly find out he was living on his nightmare floor. His residents would not show up to meetings and say “Mateo, you understand it’s Call of Duty night! Sorry we didn’t attend though, man.” Mateo found that because they had so much in common, his floor was quick to dismiss their shortcomings with a “Mateo you get it, right?” RA Mateo was nervous to lose the connection they had so was loose with rules at the beginning, leading to a tough spot later on in the year for RA Mateo.
What we have learned from 10 seasons of Love is Blind is that it is easy to make assumptions quickly but that people are individuals and not stereotypes. It’s the same with residents. You may think you know who your floor is, but residents will show you they are complex individuals. Each one will surprise you with their quirks, their insecurities, their talents, and their personalities. While immediately you will get a gut feeling – good or bad, challenge yourself to examine your biases and be open to learning who each individual is. Be blind to stereotypes and learn to love the uniqueness of your floor!
