By Gracie Fairfax | Echo
Most schools call them Resident Assistants, but we give the job a personal Taylor touch and lovingly refer to them as "Personnel Assistants."
They're your shoulder to cry on, your best friend during polar pop runs, your favorite person to prank and your worst enemy when you're breaking the rules. But you love them. They're fierce. They're fun. They're the PAs of Taylor.
These are their stories.
Stowaway Girl
Gerardo Lara, First Bergwall PA
My sophomore year I was a PA, and a football player comes into my room looking like he's on the verge of tears. He says, "I'm sorry to do this, but I'm a football captain, and I have to be responsible." I was like "What's going on?" He said, "Patrick has someone in the room, and I already asked her to leave and she wouldn't."
So I go get my other PA, and he follows me. I go into the room and I see him on the couch. I just see some girl's head, and they're cuddling under the covers on the couch. So I'm like, "Hey Patrick, she needs to leave." And he goes, "Fine, but can she put on her shirt first?" I'm sweating profusely, and then I find out it's just a wig on a golf club.
Fake You Out
Brynna Poling, Second West Olson PA
Last year, for some reason, there would just be poop on the toilet seat or on the floor. I don't know why. I was like, "Girlfriend, we know that the DC can have some interesting eats, but seriously, week after week? What are you eating? Get some fiber or don't get some fiber. Keep it in and aim. You're sitting down." It was disgusting.
That was last year-my first year being a PA. This year, two of my freshmen come up to me and they're like, "Brynna, you have to go in the bathroom." So I go into the bathroom, look at the toilet seat and there's poop on the toilet seat. So I take the toilet paper, pick up the poop, I'm just about to flush it and they're like, "No, no!" I'm was like, "What, it's poop. Why, do you want?" They're like, "It's fake poop. We just wanted to freak you out." I'm just like, "Who buys fake poop?"
Fugitive Frenzy
Rachel Cook, Second East Olson PA
It's Welcome Weekend, and we're playing Fugitive with our brother wing and so we say, "meet back by this time (11), and you lose if it's any later." So we're waiting and waiting, and there are like six freshmen who are missing. We're like, "Oh crap, it's the first week of school and we've already lost half of our freshmen." So we're like, "We gotta just call them." So we call them and we're like, "Hey guys where are you? What's going on?" And they go, "I think we're lost. We're at Burger King." They had walked all the way from campus to Burger King in the game of Fugitive.
Leader of the Pack
Chris Jordan, Second Center Wengatz PA
One of my favorite PA memories was pretending like I was William Wallace on the beach of Lake Michigan and leading the men of Second Center into the cold stormy waters.
Crabby Residents
Camila Chiang, Third Breuninger PA
This one time there were two girls on our floor. It was probably like the first month of school. Just got done with PA training. Ready to be PA. So these two girls live right across the hall from me and they keep screaming. I'm like "What is going on?" So I come in, and it's pretty late at night and they're like, "We're trying to find our pet crab!" I'm like, "Pet crab? Is that even allowed?" So we were finally able to put it back into its fish bowl. It was in a fish bowl home. It was my first PA-save-the-day experience.
Animal Farm
Parker Rea, Third East Wengatz PA
When we were taking finals, we found a raccoon in the toilet. So that was interesting . . . There were ducks in the room next to me. Or maybe it was baby chickens. No, baby ducks-baby ducklings that didn't fly well.
