Mo RhoadesFollow

Date Collected

Fall 2018

Place item was collected

Logan, UT

Informant

Myself

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

My name is Mo Rhoades. I am a fourth year student at Utah State University. I was born in Provo, Utah but I graduated high school in a suburb of Chicago called Minooka, IL. I am a resident assistant on campus and am a big fan of fan cultures and communities. I am an active producer of digital art and fan works. I am one of the readers that leaves a comment on every chapter.

Context

This is my own telling of my first year as an actor for Behind Closed Doors. I recorded myself telling my partner, who does not work for housing, about it. Under normal circumstances, this is more of a story that I tell in other groups of RAs. I’ve sometimes told it to residents that I meet in groups if they have guests from other areas because they always ask how the RAs know each other. If I were telling this to other RAs in a group, there would be less description of the actual process of Behind Closed Doors and more focusing and laughing at the new RAs and their reactions.

Text

Okay, so behind closed doors and like I was an actor and everything and it was super good because like you go through it and you learn stuff and it's super panic inducing like super super fucking panic inducing like you're just like, Well, I know everything has gone to help great and you walk in that building knowing that's what you're going to find, but you also don't know what level of what you're going to find because yeah they're all acting, but sometimes acting is really scary. Anyways, but so I got to be an actor my second year like I, it was super interesting because I was hired mid year so I didn't get to do it.

I didn't get to do BCDs, the first year I actually worked here and then I had to actually go through BCDs. So this year, you know, the two and a half year really weird really interesting. Welcome to housing, but so I got to be an actor and they put me on the fourth floor and like in the LLC were like they hold BCDS like you go up and you go into the lounge and then you go up and you go up the stairs and you go back and that's super fun and cool and then you go up more stairs, because the LLC is sweet style and it's super interesting but like you go in and you go zigzagging up the floors and technically all of the incidences get harder to higher up you go and so like there's, there's lots of different incidences like there's quiet hours violations, which are the most irritating violations on the face of the planet or we could be dealing with weed or we could be having an alcohol party or there's a god damn dog and that's just how it is. That's just how it is. And you don't know what hand you're being dealt you don't know if you're if the one hard hitting emotional one that they're going to make you do is if it's stalking or if it's a suicidal resident because that has both been situations that they possibly had to deal with.

It's super great. That's just how it goes. But like this year I got to be on the fourth floor with Scotty Fletcher, and God bless Scotty Fletcher. He's so good.

And we got to sit there and we were told that we were supposed to act blackout drunk like that we have like borderline alcohol poisoning. If not, alcohol poisoning and that was super fun and like they send a new set of arrays through the building every 15 minutes, which meant for the first like half an hour 45 minutes of time that we're actually there, Scotty, and I are just sitting there basically listening to everybody else go through this on the other floors, because you can you can hear everything in these buildings

and so like Scotty, and I are just sitting there and we are chill, just chillin we have such good conversations such good conversations like we're sitting there and we're like okay so we know what you're doing. And he's like, kinda and I'm like, do I know what I'm doing and I'm like, no. And so we sat there because yes, both of us have had alcohol. Both of us know what it's like to be intoxicated. Do either of us actually know what it's like to be a black out drunk? No. Normally we're the babysitters and so we're just sitting there and we're acting and I have never been super drunk and so I'm just kind of like super out of it and being very inconveniencing like they're trying to talk to me-these poor poor new RA’s-they're trying to talk to me and I just kind of start looking to the side and I'm like, Yes. Could you repeat everything you just said hi I'm super out of it and they're like have you been drinking and I'm like, obviously I have and then they're like okay, and they're like, Can we see your ID and I'm like, Sure, I am over 21. It's fine.

And so they're like oh my god you're actually over 21, and they're like, So what can we do for you. And we're like, we're trying to get back in our apartments. We are locked out and sometimes the new arrays would be like, Oh yeah, sure, and they and they like go to start doing the lockout thing and we're like okay guys see me and we'd be we'd like break character and be like, okay, you need to check that we're actually. Okay. And this is actually where we live, please call the police. This is your best bet. We are very sick like if you find a resident mostly asleep and they smell like alcohol and they aren't super coherent when they're addressing you, you need to call the police because they might die.

Because dying is like that. And we'd rather avoid having residents die. But yeah, and we didn't intend to make it super super hard but like there. It was very interesting to see just all the different groups of all raise and how all of that super different as the different groups came up because like some our eyes would check whether this is actually our room one group made the mistake of calling the pro staff and the police like where we could hear them. And we're like, Well, we know what residents would do even even the super super drunk and mostly incapacitated residents when they hear you talking to the police. They are going to try to run even if it just kind of looks like leaning really far, and it's amazing.

And so we had to coach them on that but for the most part, a lot of the areas were just like either they didn't catch on to how severely intoxicated we were or are they just went with it. They just listened to us and we had to, we had to coach them through talking to prostaff, had to coach them through this is why we check these things and then

I don't know. We were also in the building that had the alcohol party and so that was fun to like incorporate into the role play role play sometimes that were there, just like you guys been up to stuff tonight. And we're like, yeah, there's a party downstairs and then we just leaned against the wall because we're good actors and it's just ridiculously fun because you get to give the fresh- the new people hell and also pay attention and also just it's so good to see the new arrays because they're so hopeful and they're trying so hard, so hard.

Texture

I talk a lot with my body. I leaned a lot and drew shapes in the air with my hands to explain dimensions or directions. My partner explained that I told the story as if I was very passionate about this and like I knew how important it is. They said it was clear that I knew very well what this experience was like from the other side of things. There was a point towards the end where we both dissolved into laughter. I make a lot of overly exaggerated faces as part of my normal life, and it likely showed up in here too.

Course

ENGL 2210

Instructor

Dr. Lynne McNeill

Semester and year

Fall 2018

Theme

G7: Occupation/Avocation

EAD Number

3.8.11.1

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