We're on day 3 of RA training here. Because I know everyone else on the RA team pretty well (my school is teeny - we only have 12 RAs) and we are all generally pretty good people there was no awkwardness with starting this year. I guess the only thing I should really work on is really correcting people about pronouns; it is starting to get more awkward for me when people use the "wrong" ones. But even on that front most everyone is pretty good about it.

Today the dean of student life took me aside to ask how I was doing, and we talked about what I was going to say to my residents - whether or not I wanted to tell them I was trans, and how I'd like that to go down. She basically wanted to make sure that we were on the same page with everything. It was a good conversation, and definitely reminded me that I go to a school that I really love.

I'm never quite sure when to say things to people. I feel like if I actually interject whenever anybody makes a comment or says something that could be offensive (not just about gender/gender identity/gender expression, but about anything) then people will find me more annoying than they already do. But there's a lot of things that make me go "wait, no, that's not ok." I'm definitely more social justice minded than a lot of other folks my age. That's not good or bad, but it is different and does give me a way different perspective on a lot of things that people say.

Lastly in this disjointed blog post - I have all females in my house. That's not by concious intent - all houses on our campus are coed. It's just how housing worked out (please keep in mind that my house has 7 people in total - I'm only in charge of 6 residents). But I feel like that might get awkward somehow, though I'm not sure what my actual worries are.

I'm sure this will all abate once I actually meet my residents.

I start my final year of my BA program this fall. I start my second year attending school as a (very out) trans person. I start my first year of being a resident advisor.

I was really excited to get the RA position; I think it will be a lot of fun and kind of a way to give back to, and expand, a community that has really supported me more than I can say over the past two years. Seriously - I have thrown everything at my school administration, from late payments to jumping through hoops for financial aid to coming out as trans last fall, and they have responded with nothing but support and kindness.

Logically I know that it's unlikely I will have residents who have a big problem with who I am - my school tends to attract people who are pretty far left in their political ideologies and generally very accepting of differences in others. But there's always the "what if's" to consider. What if somebody does have a big problem with it? What if my residents don't see past the one thing they'll probably notice first (Female-bodied person introducing theirself as Andrew and most of the rest of the student and faculty using he/him/his to refer to this person) to the other facets of who I am (Total geek! Bookworm! Feminist! Lover of cupcakes!).