(no subject)
My worst fear came true tonight: I had been out drinking off-campus for my birthday, returned to campus via a cab around 12:30am, and successfully went to sleep without seeing any RAs or residents.
Until 2:30am.
That is when the fire alarm was pulled in Laguna and I sprang into action. I second-guessed myself as I made sure I was dressed appropriately to be outside and grabbed my keys, cell phone, and emergency bag. I ran into Anne first, and she asked what she was supposed to do.
Right, we haven't had our fire drill yet, so you don't know exactly what to do. Oh, and you haven't listened to me for the past two weeks when I talked about emergency bags. Fantastic. Moving on.
Anyway, I next ran into Sammy and he mentioned seeing people around the first floor immediately after the alarm was pulled. Great. Did you get a look at who they were? No. Even better.
I sent Anne to get people out of the building, as we are required to follow protocol in this type of situation. Sammy worked on keeping the residents in the parking lot and not trying to sneak back into their rooms. I circled the Vistas to check that it was just Laguna's alarm and thankfully it was. When I returned to Laguna, Officer Hansen had arrived and I was incredibley grateful that I was not alone in this mess. Although, I wish I had been wearing cuter PJs.
I found KC in the parking lot, helping Sammy herd the residents. She was a rockstar. She had them divide up by floor and started doing a head count. Would have been even more amazing if the RAs had remembered to grab their resident lists. But, we're learning. We'll get there.
After about 15-20 minutes, Officer Hansen got the alarm turned off and I gave the all clear for residents to return to their room. I was so impressed with their cooperation in the middle of the night. Everyone was really well behaved and actually listened to me. What a shocker. The RAs and I chatted with Ryan and then we all went our separate ways.
Unfortunately, the fire alarm work up about 150-200 people, so it was difficult to get them to settle down and go back to sleep. I had to ask some of them to quiet down and told them that I really didn't want to get any one in trouble. Again, they cooperated. It's nice to have some sembalance of control.
The only thing that worried me was my level of intoxication for assuming responsiblity. That was my fear through the fire alarm situation. I am now 23 years old, legally able to drink, and was responsible while out and took a cab home. But, upon returning home, my job becomes my first priority. Had the alarm gone off in another building, I might have been able to shy away from responsibility and call the CD on call to respond. But since I too had to evacuate, I felt obligated to assume such responsibility.
Thankfully, the strange combination of inebriation, exhaustion, and adernaline cleared my head to respond appropriately. And I don't believe that anyone suspected that I was anything other than capable and sober. So that's promising.
It looks like 23 is going to be a good year for me. I can have fun and be responsible. Here's to an amazing year!