Here at SUNY Oswego, Greek life is big.  While I'm sure it's a big aspect of most schools, we're a bit different here.  The people who pledge go through some tough stuff, always, and I don't envy them for a second.  When the freshmen move in, you can almost predict who will pledge and who will be entirely against it.  I think that's how we're different; our pledge program is awful, but you always know who's going to suffer through it.

This semester 4 of my actual residents, and two of my adopted ones, were up for the challenge.

One day, one of mine and one of my adopted boys came in and asked if I had any condoms.  Not a weird question.  But then they asked if they could have 100.  I wasn't sure if I should be proud or suspicious.  These boys are some of the sweetest guys I've ever had the pleasure of being an RA for, so I wasn't too leary about providing them with a few handfuls of rubbers.

I'm not quite sure how they made it through pledging, but I do know that there's one frat on campus that is guarunteed safe sex for the remainder of the semester.  And I'm okay with that.  

I love this question.  Want to know why?

Because they know I always do.  This being my 4th semester of feeling helpful and safe-sex promoting, I've acquired a reputation amongst those who know me.

When I'm not busy being an RA, I work for my school's campus recreation department.  Depending on the day, I can have one of three or four jobs.  Anyway, this specific day, I was working our desk when one of my residents from last year was coming in for her dance class.  And out of nowherre she asked, "Do you still have all those condoms you got?"  Of course all of her friends thought that I was some crazy sex fiend who had a stock pile of condoms so that i could be prepared for which ever male caller I was arranged to meet that night.  Thankfully, she continued by telling her friends how I "won" (for lack of better terms) 500 condoms a semester.  Then I was the awesome RA who could provide them with endless supplies of condoms.

My legacy was slowly expanding.  It was like building an empire of safe-sex, collegiate age messengers.   Or a waterfall of not being pregnant or infected/diseased.  I liked this.

Since I don't typically carry my remaining condoms on me personage at all times, I assured her that next week she would have a whole baggie for her and her house mates.  Needless to say I was their new favorite person.

College students are fun - a bag full of free, good condoms is like handing a toddler a bag of pixie sticks.  It's endearing to know that even though they've moved on in their residency, they know that they can still use me as a resource.  And it's even better to know that I can provide them what they need.

Condom delivery day is one of the best days of the semester.  My entire staff looks for that box to arrive and everyone wants to be there when I open it.  I think my residents get the most out of this though. 

When I finally fight the crowd back up to my floor, the real fun begins. It's time to make it rain, which is exactly what it sounds like. I run a lap of my floor, and any door I see open, I make it rain condoms. This ends up serving two purposes.  First, I get a jump start on my distribution process. Second, when the people in these rooms tell their friends what they missed out on by not being in their room, their friends all try to find me.

For the next five days I have guys from a bunch of floors trying to find me because they heard I have 500 free condoms and to top that, it's a variety!  So they come in little clumps, like when girls go to the bathroom together, and start picking through the box.  Most of them have never heard of or seen half of the options that were sent, so they leave with a plethora of colorful little packets because it's like Pokemon and they have to catch 'em all.

My residents and staff look forward to the delivery of that little mystery box.  They know they can afford to have safe sex and it prompts an open conversation about birth control.  I still have some condoms left, so it might be time to make it rain one more time.

I have. One of the programs I did this semester was called Think You Know About Sex?  Essentially there were 30 questions that were either multiple choice or fill in the blank.  We sat at the front door of the building and as people walked in and out during the dinner rush, they stopped to play.  They picked five numbers from a bag that matched a numbered question on the table.  For every question they got right, they got a condom.

It was a bunch of fun to watch people play.  They really liked that the questions were't your every day health class questions.  The questions were like "Every breast has the same number of nerve endings. True or False. (True!)"  Frat boys who thought they knew so much about sex were sadly mistaken.  It was good to see them learning more than just ways to get with as many girls as possible.

I miss my residents.  They made random condom distribution parties a blast and were as excited as I was about getting the condoms.

Everyone knows that anticipation and excitement that Christmas brings, right?  Well my building has been feeling that since the second I announced that I would be receiving the condoms again.  Yesterday, Christmas finally arrived.  I got texts from all of my staff about  my package being here and there was that moment of "commmme oonnnnn open ittttt!!!" Boy were we all shocked to see the variety.  And beyond pumped!  So I decided to play santa and visit some friends and their residents with y box of goodies.  I can't even describe just how excited freshman boys get when you announce that you have free condoms and there's more than one kind there.  I think it's really really really awesome that there's a variety this time.  It kind of says, condoms don't have to be boring, here try this one.  I'm pretty sure in one night I gave away over 100 condoms.  But that makes sense in a building of about 630.  I'm so excited to have this opportunity again.

So, I'm an RA in one of the buildings on my campus. We have this thing call being on-call. That means that two of us are left responsible for the entire building (about 650 residents in my building) and have to make sure nothing illegal or dangerous is going on. Part of this requires us to sit at the front doors, the only way students can enter the building, and check IDs to make sure only people who live in the building are coming in. 

Well, I just so happened to be on-call on October 30th. For anyone who hasn't been on a college campus in years, this is a BIG night for everyone who drinks. Which seems to be just about everyone.  I decided it would be a good time to take advantage of this opportunity and have some trick or treat goodies for them when they came back.  So there I sat with a trick or treat bucket full of condoms. I ended up giving away over fifty that night alone. I was pumped to get them as they came back - at least they could make one safe decision that night!

Oh. A side note. At this point, my blogs will be reflections. Like, the next one will be about the day my box arrived. This semester has been nuts. But I'm glad I could do this extra thing for my residents!