Logging the End of a Life (er, Job)

Whenever an RA is on duty, they need to submit a duty report by the following morning. I recently had my last night of duty ever (after 22 consecutive months of it). I'd like to share the report with you. I almost - almost - got choked up when writing it.

Andrew Schnorr
5/14/2008 Short Duty
Building: Towle

SM Breaks:
-TO 10pm-3am: Alvaro: None.

1^st Rounds: 9:12pm – 9:41pm
-Keyed into the 6^th Floor Suites.
-Lots of the doors on the 6^th floor were open; it was nice.
-Every lounge was jam-packed with avid studiers.
-Due to our late sunsets, there was still some red illumination in the clouds to the west. Every time I was by a window, I looked out, past the Underhill lights encircled by bugs, past all the buildings, and to the clouds, watching the colors slowly fade from the sky into nothing more than my memory.

2^nd Rounds: 12:32am – 12:55am
-There was a bittersweet feeling I had about these rounds; they were my last. Ever. So, I was almost…pensive about them. In fact, for the first 5 or 7 minutes, I was actually sitting at the top of the stairs, right next to the entrance to the roof. Sitting, sitting and staring at the Campanile. No real reason, no real purpose. Still, it was nice.
-The halls were quiet, and yet there was so much energy buzzing around. People frantically flipping through their books and notes, draining away at their youth…
-Probably one of my longest second rounds to not have an incident, but well worth it, I feel.

Lockouts:
-None. :)

Incidents/Issues:
-None. :)

Maintenance/Custodial Tags:
-None. :)

Misc:
-My duty log for…just about a full year now has been a classic black-and-white marbled composition book. As I look at it right now, it definitely looks used. The cover ink has faded away where my hands have handled it time and time again. The corners are bent, the pages are curled; the spine actually had to be reinforced with blue tape. Truth be told, though, it’s held up better than my duty log from last year (which practically fell apart after a resident threw it into the street).

Still, the important part of the log is not how the cover looks, but what’s written on the inside. At first glance, it seems so…sterile. Names, times, numbers, shorthand sentences. It looks more like a census booklet than anything. And yet, what they represent is so much more.

Each of those names is an interaction. Each time is an event. Every single three-word sentence was *something* in my experience that I felt was worthwhile to note. And there are PAGES and PAGES of them. Some good, some bad, but more than you think are memorable. One note from 6/10/07 was “res run .5-nude on 1” (Translation: “Some resident was running around half naked on the 1^st Floor of Ehrman”). From 11/8/07: “talk res my room watch orcas” (Translation: “Spoke with some of my 4^th Floor residents and then brought them to my room to watch a video about killer whales”). Both good and bad are there, and I remember them so *vividly* after reading these nonsensical sentences. So much in one little composition book.

Still, I would say the single best part of the log is the very last page. It was doodled on by a wonderful resident from Japan named Mariko whilst I was drinking boba with her and another resident in the Ehrman 8^th Floor laundry room over the summer. On it, there is a simple, inaccurate drawing of (I’m assuming) Bart Simpson, along with my name in Japanese. There is also a message which I think best sums up my strengths, my weaknesses, my experiences, my *life* as a UC Berkeley Resident Assistant:

“Hi! Andrew!! Let’s go to TARGET!!”

Signing off one last time,
Andrew Schnorr