R.A. Is “Really Gonna Miss You Guys”

In this scary, confusing time it’s difficult to find any form of solace. Maybe it’s not being able to see your friends or the substantial family time you’ve had the past two weeks, but something’s got you in a not-so-great state of mind. Watching television all day makes you feel like garbage, yet you still don’t even attempt to do anything else. You only expected to be gone for a few weeks, so all of your stuff is still in Tallahassee with no idea when you’ll be able to get it all. Today, you woke up at the peak of your isolation-induced depression. You check your phone to find a GroupMe notification from the “5th Floor Squad” chat. It becomes quickly evident that, even with the current climate, your R.A. is ready to make this situation all about themselves.

“Hey, guys I’m just checking in to see how you are all doing. I’m being sure to self-isolate and wash my hands at least once every 45 minutes. How are you guys staying safe during this time?” asked Allison Siegler, your resident advisor whose favorite hobbies include breaking all of the dorm rules at her friend’s off-campus apartments and letting you know that she’s “here if you need anything.” “I just want you guys to know that no one, absolutely no one, is as crushed as I am at this time. Every time I think about how we will never be able to take a group trip to the SLC or meet up in the kitchen to make pancakes, I start sobbing. I think back to the beginning of the semester, meeting you guys as scared 18-year-olds, unsure about what the world had in store for you. Now, you guys depart as fully formed, mature 19-year-olds. I’m so extremely proud of each and every one of you.”

“I mean she was cool or whatever. She caught me and my boy David hitting geebs in our bathroom once and didn’t say shit. I don’t know what was up with that message, though. It seemed a little overdramatic,” noted Andrew Davis, the former occupant of room 537 and defacer of at least two safe sex hallway displays. “I didn’t realize we even had a relationship with her considering nobody in our hall really talked to her except for the one kid who mentioned he was ‘excited for college to be different’ at our first hall meeting. We would see her around campus, and she never made eye contact. I know she saw us too because she would speed up her walking.”

Whether or not Allison’s relationship with her residents was as genuine as her half dozen, multi-paragraph dorm-wide texts indicate, one thing is for sure: she is really going through it right now, and she’s certainly not the only one. This is a tough time for people all over the world. Young people, specifically, are being torn from their friends and forced to stay at home. Sure, the death rates are rising and millions are now unemployed, but not being able to go to Recess one last time before summer is absolutely heartbreaking.