Posted on August 23, 2007, on my Friendster Blog:
Well, it all started when I first came to NUS, only my parents, me and maybe one of my seniors and one of my peer, I went to this 30-block-hostel, with a tiny management office to take care of its huge property and the humans inside, namely Prince George's Park Residences (PGPR). When I was going to check in, because PGPR is where I was admitted to for semester accommodation, you know, not few people where queuing trying to finish every check in procedure as soon as possible, but you don't know where to go or what to do, It's just when one person form a group of friendly people named Resident Assistants (RAs) approached me and help me with everything they could.
That's when I was inspired to become one.
I did some info gathering when I found out that RA has a master cluster transponder (a type of key) to access every clusters in PGPR in case a resident calls you in state of emergency so they can give immediate action, that RA gets free and guaranteed accommodation where normal residents have to pay and collect enough Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) points to stay within campus area (halls and residences).
These pieces of info has even attracted me more to have myself get the job.
Semester 2. I was waiting for the application form to be disseminated among NUS students, while having some other CCAs. When the mail with the attached form came I was quite dubious about my own decision whether to or not to apply. That condition was when I had quite a number of activity commitments trying to secure enough points for my third year (because It was about the end for 1st year meaning points can be allocated to third year). Yeah, I applied for it after taking into deep consideration, submitted the application around one week before the deadline.
I was a Cluster Leader(one those who are in charge of one floor of a block) and I requested for recommendation letter from the RA from my block (in PGPR, generally one RA manages one block) and of course I enclosed the letter of recommendation which may be a forte for me. Luckily my application was accepted and I sat for interview. As expected I met the RADs (Resident adviser, RAs' superior) who were in charge of the residence (6 residences in PGPR).Well, the interview was quite okay, because I think I had showed sufficient passion and enthusiasm to become an RA. They were asking about leadership experience which I almost hardly had, but luckily I referred to Cluster Leader which is at least a kind of existing leadership which is recognized in PGPR, and I also stated about being a publicity head in NUSSU Matriculation Fair committee although I only have one subordinate (:p) which is my vice.
For quite a period of time me, with another applicants of the same residence I knew beforehand from my other friend, (RADs decide to choose which RAs to be successful of their application) and we were waiting for the same good news. Well after around one or two months of doubt, we were extremely excited to know that We were part of the RA team at that time.
Holiday Period, we were attending the compulsory RA training. The training was about building a team inside the RA community. It was quite fun as we got to play bonding games, got to see some natural leaders, also got to know quite a number of new friends (a few of familiar senior RAs also). The day after we were given the official letter of job assignment, that We officially are newly selected/reappointed RAs.
Well, then We had this a-three-week annual welcoming event called "welcome fest" inside this PGPR (where I first met the cute V******ese freshman). It was still holiday during this welcome fest, but I was having a lot of other hectic activities. Buddhist Society, Indonesian Society, NUSSU Matric Fair, NUSSU Flag day, and NUSSU business committee. This Welcome fest was already demanding for the most amount of commitment (in terms of time available to be spent), but I had to cope with those other activities as well. I was disappointed with myself, getting myself into time management problem, having insufficient energy to perform well. But still I strived, giving at least normal standard quality of performance to each of the commitments under the stressful condition. That was when even my sleep's not regular: sometimes you sleep at 4 in the morning, sometimes twelve at noon, sometimes 6 in the afternoon, etc.
But luckily everything went smoothly.
*first lesson from here: Never get yourself to heavily committed to a lot of stuffs*
During the welcome fest debrief itself at Office of Student affair, only then I learnt (you may say it as realized) one thing. Although we had the team building training, apparently it wasn't as expected. There's one event during the welcome fest period called the Captain's Ball Night and a lot of new rules appeared during the game itself. When (no harm, I'll be using nicknames after this) Mr X was the person in charge of this event and he was giving feedback like this during the debrief.
"I dunno arh, but this is the first time I talk during meetings. I just want to clarify that I don't know whether RAs are chosen because of their leadership skills. That means everybody sitting here *addressing all RAs* are leaders. But one thing to take note is, during the event (captain's ball) I'm in charge of (so he's basically the leader of captain's ball manager team) a lot of new rules came out within the referee without my notice. Well some of you, although you all are leaders in your way, must at least pay me a bit of respect, and try to be a worker rather than a leader during my event itself"
Basically it's about the overflow of leadership sense some of the RAs came out with during the event he's in charge for, but what he's talking about that since all of us are a team, why not we work as a team with him as the leader because he was the one assigned, and forget about some personal point of interest. But he has a point and I know he was only addressing some people excluding me because I was only a scorekeeper (:p, hehehe).
*2nd lesson from here: We all should try to work as a team instead of everyone be the leaders, and nobody as worker*
Well. School starts again, second year *wow* but as RAs we must have our events to promote residents' welfare. So we have this event call welcome night where we basically conduct it within residence scope and we RAs of similar residence work as a 4 or 5-person-team (1 residence around 4-6 RAs in general). Things to do were We were to submit proposals for events(welcome night was one of it), and plan and execute those smoothly. 5 of us were newly appointed RAs (as in no senior RAs in our residence we are in charge of) and we were already having problem with planning for the proposal. Near welcome night itself, we haven't even had our RA contact list and duty rosters attached in Cluster pantries, not to mention posters to put up, we have Cluster leader elections also on nearby date but no notices has been given to all the clusters within our residence and RADs were like chasing us through emails. We were rushing everything like hell, I was even in deeper sh*t as my commitments haven't ended. I was worried, because like meetings within 5 of us weren't effective and efficient enough and we were wasting a lot of time. Well we did everything step by step, we even had meetings with RADs with them complaining about us inside. "Although you all are newly appointed RAs, We expected you to be proactive and be able to take initiative, We didn't expect good things but we only expect the minimum, but you all are still under the minimum line of expectation". The comment was quite stabbing, "When one RA is slacking, others, as a team, must be proactive and remind him/her to be doing his/her tasks. So if one event goes wrong, it would be the fault of the team". Having being said those feedbacks, We tried everything our best, did everything what we were supposed to do. I even asked advices from other senior RAs. Fortunately in the end the event was successful, special thanks to those supporting us by coming down for the event.
*3rd lesson from here: try to learn to seek advice;
4th lesson from here: we need to be able to prioritize*
But It wouldn't be that good had I not been ignorant of my other activities and concentrate my everything on my RA job.
School was starting and we still had one or two things to do and still other activities were still demanding for my commitment, and It was when I quited one of my commitment, namely NUSSU Bizcom despite I was in their management committee. I have thought really really carefully about it. Some factors are: I'm more in favor of RA rather than this; In the committee itself I don't really feel that I belong there neither do I really make good friends from those people unlike other RAs; Conflict of interest (sound so "law"-ish but I didn't feel belong actually because their lifestyle's different); I didn't have chance to spend much time with my friends anymore, when these words such as "our RA's become cocky already" when I was in deep stress, and they are enjoying their time and complaining why I couldn't spare my time and join them.
So I "resigned" from my post inside NUSSU Bizcom which required a lot of my time, and haven't regretted my action until now. I felt so relieved and so happy afterwards.
*5th lesson from here: Sometimes necessary sacrifice is needed;
6th lesson from here: Committee comes from the word "commit", when you are in the committee, you need to give full commitment, If you cannot, you don't deserve being inside the committee;
7th lesson from here: back to 4th lesson, you must prioritize health (mental and physical) as the first thing to consider*
Now after a hell long of experience, only now you get to know things from different side. I didn't even have enough time to write blogs, but now after I made the decisions which I think is most correct for myself, everything, including my life has back to what I think It's supposed to be. Although I'm quite worried about my sustainability in this RA job because I don't think I have portrayed good image to my RADs, but overall, taking notice to everything I have learned as an RA, I thank God he let me see these things. This valuable experience which may help me later on in my life. :-)
Well, it all started when I first came to NUS, only my parents, me and maybe one of my seniors and one of my peer, I went to this 30-block-hostel, with a tiny management office to take care of its huge property and the humans inside, namely Prince George's Park Residences (PGPR). When I was going to check in, because PGPR is where I was admitted to for semester accommodation, you know, not few people where queuing trying to finish every check in procedure as soon as possible, but you don't know where to go or what to do, It's just when one person form a group of friendly people named Resident Assistants (RAs) approached me and help me with everything they could.
That's when I was inspired to become one.
I did some info gathering when I found out that RA has a master cluster transponder (a type of key) to access every clusters in PGPR in case a resident calls you in state of emergency so they can give immediate action, that RA gets free and guaranteed accommodation where normal residents have to pay and collect enough Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) points to stay within campus area (halls and residences).
These pieces of info has even attracted me more to have myself get the job.
Semester 2. I was waiting for the application form to be disseminated among NUS students, while having some other CCAs. When the mail with the attached form came I was quite dubious about my own decision whether to or not to apply. That condition was when I had quite a number of activity commitments trying to secure enough points for my third year (because It was about the end for 1st year meaning points can be allocated to third year). Yeah, I applied for it after taking into deep consideration, submitted the application around one week before the deadline.
I was a Cluster Leader(one those who are in charge of one floor of a block) and I requested for recommendation letter from the RA from my block (in PGPR, generally one RA manages one block) and of course I enclosed the letter of recommendation which may be a forte for me. Luckily my application was accepted and I sat for interview. As expected I met the RADs (Resident adviser, RAs' superior) who were in charge of the residence (6 residences in PGPR).Well, the interview was quite okay, because I think I had showed sufficient passion and enthusiasm to become an RA. They were asking about leadership experience which I almost hardly had, but luckily I referred to Cluster Leader which is at least a kind of existing leadership which is recognized in PGPR, and I also stated about being a publicity head in NUSSU Matriculation Fair committee although I only have one subordinate (:p) which is my vice.
For quite a period of time me, with another applicants of the same residence I knew beforehand from my other friend, (RADs decide to choose which RAs to be successful of their application) and we were waiting for the same good news. Well after around one or two months of doubt, we were extremely excited to know that We were part of the RA team at that time.
Holiday Period, we were attending the compulsory RA training. The training was about building a team inside the RA community. It was quite fun as we got to play bonding games, got to see some natural leaders, also got to know quite a number of new friends (a few of familiar senior RAs also). The day after we were given the official letter of job assignment, that We officially are newly selected/reappointed RAs.
Well, then We had this a-three-week annual welcoming event called "welcome fest" inside this PGPR (where I first met the cute V******ese freshman). It was still holiday during this welcome fest, but I was having a lot of other hectic activities. Buddhist Society, Indonesian Society, NUSSU Matric Fair, NUSSU Flag day, and NUSSU business committee. This Welcome fest was already demanding for the most amount of commitment (in terms of time available to be spent), but I had to cope with those other activities as well. I was disappointed with myself, getting myself into time management problem, having insufficient energy to perform well. But still I strived, giving at least normal standard quality of performance to each of the commitments under the stressful condition. That was when even my sleep's not regular: sometimes you sleep at 4 in the morning, sometimes twelve at noon, sometimes 6 in the afternoon, etc.
But luckily everything went smoothly.
*first lesson from here: Never get yourself to heavily committed to a lot of stuffs*
During the welcome fest debrief itself at Office of Student affair, only then I learnt (you may say it as realized) one thing. Although we had the team building training, apparently it wasn't as expected. There's one event during the welcome fest period called the Captain's Ball Night and a lot of new rules appeared during the game itself. When (no harm, I'll be using nicknames after this) Mr X was the person in charge of this event and he was giving feedback like this during the debrief.
"I dunno arh, but this is the first time I talk during meetings. I just want to clarify that I don't know whether RAs are chosen because of their leadership skills. That means everybody sitting here *addressing all RAs* are leaders. But one thing to take note is, during the event (captain's ball) I'm in charge of (so he's basically the leader of captain's ball manager team) a lot of new rules came out within the referee without my notice. Well some of you, although you all are leaders in your way, must at least pay me a bit of respect, and try to be a worker rather than a leader during my event itself"
Basically it's about the overflow of leadership sense some of the RAs came out with during the event he's in charge for, but what he's talking about that since all of us are a team, why not we work as a team with him as the leader because he was the one assigned, and forget about some personal point of interest. But he has a point and I know he was only addressing some people excluding me because I was only a scorekeeper (:p, hehehe).
*2nd lesson from here: We all should try to work as a team instead of everyone be the leaders, and nobody as worker*
Well. School starts again, second year *wow* but as RAs we must have our events to promote residents' welfare. So we have this event call welcome night where we basically conduct it within residence scope and we RAs of similar residence work as a 4 or 5-person-team (1 residence around 4-6 RAs in general). Things to do were We were to submit proposals for events(welcome night was one of it), and plan and execute those smoothly. 5 of us were newly appointed RAs (as in no senior RAs in our residence we are in charge of) and we were already having problem with planning for the proposal. Near welcome night itself, we haven't even had our RA contact list and duty rosters attached in Cluster pantries, not to mention posters to put up, we have Cluster leader elections also on nearby date but no notices has been given to all the clusters within our residence and RADs were like chasing us through emails. We were rushing everything like hell, I was even in deeper sh*t as my commitments haven't ended. I was worried, because like meetings within 5 of us weren't effective and efficient enough and we were wasting a lot of time. Well we did everything step by step, we even had meetings with RADs with them complaining about us inside. "Although you all are newly appointed RAs, We expected you to be proactive and be able to take initiative, We didn't expect good things but we only expect the minimum, but you all are still under the minimum line of expectation". The comment was quite stabbing, "When one RA is slacking, others, as a team, must be proactive and remind him/her to be doing his/her tasks. So if one event goes wrong, it would be the fault of the team". Having being said those feedbacks, We tried everything our best, did everything what we were supposed to do. I even asked advices from other senior RAs. Fortunately in the end the event was successful, special thanks to those supporting us by coming down for the event.
*3rd lesson from here: try to learn to seek advice;
4th lesson from here: we need to be able to prioritize*
But It wouldn't be that good had I not been ignorant of my other activities and concentrate my everything on my RA job.
School was starting and we still had one or two things to do and still other activities were still demanding for my commitment, and It was when I quited one of my commitment, namely NUSSU Bizcom despite I was in their management committee. I have thought really really carefully about it. Some factors are: I'm more in favor of RA rather than this; In the committee itself I don't really feel that I belong there neither do I really make good friends from those people unlike other RAs; Conflict of interest (sound so "law"-ish but I didn't feel belong actually because their lifestyle's different); I didn't have chance to spend much time with my friends anymore, when these words such as "our RA's become cocky already" when I was in deep stress, and they are enjoying their time and complaining why I couldn't spare my time and join them.
So I "resigned" from my post inside NUSSU Bizcom which required a lot of my time, and haven't regretted my action until now. I felt so relieved and so happy afterwards.
*5th lesson from here: Sometimes necessary sacrifice is needed;
6th lesson from here: Committee comes from the word "commit", when you are in the committee, you need to give full commitment, If you cannot, you don't deserve being inside the committee;
7th lesson from here: back to 4th lesson, you must prioritize health (mental and physical) as the first thing to consider*
Now after a hell long of experience, only now you get to know things from different side. I didn't even have enough time to write blogs, but now after I made the decisions which I think is most correct for myself, everything, including my life has back to what I think It's supposed to be. Although I'm quite worried about my sustainability in this RA job because I don't think I have portrayed good image to my RADs, but overall, taking notice to everything I have learned as an RA, I thank God he let me see these things. This valuable experience which may help me later on in my life. :-)
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