Friday, March 13, 2009

17 hours of sleep in 5 days

Spring break is finally here. It couldn't have come sooner...

You see, there's one thing I've learned being an RA. I've learned that Spring Break is designed to keep residents from beating the others to death with an over-sized biology textbook--something that came uncomfortably close to happening approximately seven to eight times last week.

The near-fatal conversation of midterms, sickness, unpredictable weather, and spending too much time together causes residents (...and yes, even RA's--we're not as perfect as we're expected to be) to endure a rapid regression of their interpersonal communication skills. In a matter of hours, the most mature, soft-spoken college junior can return to the interpersonal skills of a teenager with an over abundance of testosterone.

For me, this is the hardest time of year. In my sleep-deprived state, I find it extremely hard to drum up the empathy necessary to appropriately mediate the conflicts. I find myself locked in an internal debate about which was stupider--signing up for this or allowing the person in front of me to whine for half-an-hour. It's about that time, I cut them off and give them my advice causing them to become enraged, question my competency, and slam my door as they exit.

It is a thankless job. Inevitably, the residents see the correctness of my view point and act on my advice. Despite their concession, they never verbalize an apology to me and choose to act as though the conversation never happened.

I shutter to think what would happen to my sanity without spring break. I'm looking forward to escaping to my alternate life--one of a professional atmosphere where I can separate my personal life from work, where crying girls won't be pounding on my door at 2am, wear I can escape the obnoxious nature of drunken frat guys, and where I can actually get more than four hours of sleep a night.

Spring break, I salute you.

Until next times, Sweet Dreams.

--The Sleep-Deprived Student

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