It’s really interesting how time can make something that was really serious into something really funny. It was 2003 – my junior year of college. Starting a week before all the other students, the resident advisers (aka the cool kids, right?) would assemble on campus to participate in a number of training and bonding activities.

During the course of this week, we got to hear from our industrious residence life staff (mostly made up of grad students looking to get their tuition and board paid while going through school) on the importance of maintaining an image of leadership and responsibility at all times. I was among these people. I was one of the resident advisers of the freshmen dorm Nelligan Hall.

Nelligan was a fascinating place. It was the only residence hall that employed 2 resident advisers per floor (as opposed to the usual 1). These RAs were highly skilled in the necessary competencies: playing Halo, ordering pizza, and busting up parties. The busting up parties varied from RA to RA, but in general the system worked.

Think back to my earlier point about leadership and responsibility. As RAs, the higher ups expected us to set the example for others (read: don’t be drunk in public, morons).

Then came Matt. Matt was younger (I think a sophomore), and thus underage. He was co-RA of the 3rd floor with my former roommate (and co-RA from the previous year), Jordan Patch. Jordan would be best described as our campus’ Tony Soprano. You want to do anything, you better talk to the boss.

So back to Matt. Matt must have read the phrase “don’t ever change” in his yearbook one too many times, because when he got the job as RA – he didn’t. You see, Matt was a really thirsty guy. But the kind of beverage he drank always made him do really stupid things – and worse, in front of his residents. But not to worry, the system has steps and a recovery program for this kind of behavior (read: he was fired).

At any rate, here we are 7 years later and I genuinely do believe the statute of limitations on the Department of Residence Life being mad at him has passed. It’s college, and this is what college life is like. But that alone is not the punchline of this story.

Matt was let go about 6-7 weeks into the year, and the residents were still learning who we were. In the lobby of the dorm, you could find a “Meet Your RAs” board. It was a corkboard with photos of the RAs, taken in pairs. Natrually, the 3rd floor RAs photo showcased Jordan and Matt, standing outside our school’s pristine chapel.

And there was the problem. The seasons started changing, and we didn’t want to go out and shoot new photos. Besides, we were in shirts/ties which was an annual event for most of us. So I was tasked with “removing Matt from existence”. Yeah, you heard that right, just like Marty McFly’s family photograph at the end of Back to the Future.

What better time to learn Photoshop? And this is where the funny came in. Imagine Matt’s surprise (and others), when he tried to comprehend how all traces of his being on staff were carefully (and with swift precision) eliminated.

Within 24 hours of his termination, the new picture was up in the lobby. Like I said, something that was serious ultimately became funny. At least I think it is.