Lifetime Rec Week 5

This week was a very calm week for the Lifetime Recreation community. Students were focusing on getting things done so they would be able to spend time with their families over the weekend. As for myself, last week was a eye-opener. I started noticing things about myself and the residents in terms of how we were acting or behaving. For instance, I noticed that my residents were acting more rude to each other. I noticed a lot more eye rolls and glares from the residents more than the typical once in a while snarky comment. One of my residents stated something along the lines of " Man, you are so retarded" to another resident. Now for me that is a personal heart tug and my first reaction was to prance on him and tell him that word is something that personally offends me and other people. But instead I looked at him and asked him why did he say that? What does that word mean to you? The only response I got was "I don't know."  I hope that after I asked him why he stated those words and why was he directing them to another resident, he starts becoming more conscious of his wording.
I just feel that in this moment, a lot of the students are becoming really comfortable and they are saying whatever comes to mind. But then it could be that the residents are not fully aware of what they are saying to others.

On the other hand, it was great to meet the parents of some of the residents during a Sunday morning brunch! The parents truly enjoyed themselves as they learned more about the Living-Learning community and learning more about the students who were interacting with their students. It was also nice for me to interact with some of the parents so they could become more familiar with me and I could do the same with them. A lot of the residents told me afterwards that they appreciated the invite of the students and parents because it gives the parents relief in terms of their transition of having their student at college.