Why have a lazy weekend when you can experience the opportunities of growth, trust, and respect through meatballs? Yes, I said meatballs! More specifically, a spaghetti and meatball dinner.
This weekend, I opened my apartment to my eight resident assistants and my fellow graduate resident director for a spaghetti dinner, and the outcome was amazing! Through opening up my space of comfort to my staff, the eight resident assistants came to the first spring semester staff meeting with a new sense of openness and trust about themselves as well. I saw the new spring semester resident assistant staff discuss stories about each of their families and backgrounds, while the other graduate resident director and I were cooking, and we became overjoyed. My fellow coworker and I were overjoyed simply because we knew the spring semester was off to a great start. A small yet successful event for a new staff produced a successful team from a group of eight unique individuals.
So if you are a student leader or even just want to build a sense of community within your friends and family:
- Invite your friends, family, or fellow staff members over to your apartment for a fun event (family dinner or a game night)
- Ask a couple of friends, family, or fellow staff members to accompany you to the store to pick up supplies for the event
- Open up a piece of your comfort space, through a fun activity, like a family dinner or a game night
- Keep in mind you do not have to share your whole comfort space, you can keep some areas private, but be sure to make your guest aware
- Be prepared to have to start the conversations
- See that through your openness, how others bring a new sense of openness and trust about themselves to the gathering
Maybe even throw in a few meatballs and a spaghetti dinner, you never know what the outcome could be!
