My freshman year, I was lucky enough to have the biggest room on the fourth floor of Vaughn. When I got there, I lavished in the bountiful space that I had in my room and arranged all my new shiny Target items just so. Little did I know the spectrum of emotions and events that I would experience during my time there.
That one semester I had a roommate who vacuumed while I was sleeping and asked for hugs at 4:00 in the morning, a food-thieving suite mate, Gizelle Bunchem as a Gateways advisor, an amazing air-piloting chemistry professor and many, many life lessons.
When I first got to school, I spent the entire first night petrified, clinging to my stuffed animal (yes I still have one) because some upperclassmen told me every ghost story in their “lets scare the freshman arsenal”.
Also I was there alone because of my early arrival.
If only I had known to savor every petrified moment I had that night because as my third roommate arrived, all hell broke loose.
It all started when my two roommates and I went to a polite little lunch to get to know each other in Stadium Center. To the horror of roomie #1 and I, roomie #2 set her feet up on the table –yea the one with food on it- and started to eat.
Then since she didn’t want to waste any delicious morsel of her tuna sandwich, roomie #2 stuck her finger into the roof of her mouth, scraped for remnants of the sandwich, observed it and ate it. I will NEVER view a tuna sandwich the same way…..or eat one.
This, however, was only the beginning.
She had extreme anxiety over her parents leaving so she cried the first night-understandable–then the second night-okay- but by the end of the week it got downright ridiculous. In order to get sleep I started to make pilgrimages to tmy friend’s room in Austin Hall.
The straw that broke the camels back however was the epic “Orientation Issue”. Roomie #2 liked a guy. We warned her in vein, until one night she saw him in the elevator…enjoying his orientation shall we say?
She took it hard and called me. I was out so I tried to console her via cell phone. I finally got in. I slipped into bed and went to sleep. A nice peaceful sleep until I got a tap on my shoulder at 3:39 in the morning from miss #2 asking me for a hug.
I know this sounds crazy but I got up and gave her my best 3:39 a.m. hug so she would just go back to sleep.
Just when I thought that was enough, she burst into tears so what was I supposed to do? I consoled her and got exactly zero sleep that night. I went to Austin Hall the next day to get some sleep and make up for it.
After that we had a room mediation session where this girl again cried and complained about ME of all people.
Why? You may ask?
Because I was sharp with her for vacuuming the carpet directly in front of my bed while I was sleeping! Obviously it was my behavior that was out of line so she moved out.
This is just my warning to you new students. If you have a crazy, inconsiderate roommate; move out immediately. Room changes are here for a reason so take advantage of them! I can now sense the warning signs like someone crying over the fact that you slam the microwave door too hard.
There is a semi good ending to this story however. The good news for you is that she no longer attends this school. But for me, it was a little more complicated. When I was chilling with my friends in Austin a couple of nights after the mediation and move out, there was a knock so we got up to answer it.
I think you can guess who took the vacant single room next door.
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