As some of the new freshman may know, or may have already experienced, living in close quarters with strangers lends itself to some crazy nights, adventures, and potentially, nightmare roommates. Luckily (or unluckily) for me, I had the opposite problem my first semester of school.
The summer before my first semester of college, one of my good friends from home was accepted to the same university, and we had decided to be roommates! It was shaping up to be a perfect semester, our colors coordinated, we were good friends, but not best friends, so no drama there. We went to summer orientations together, even made some new friends within our orientation together. Like I said, it was going to be perfect.
Until it wasn’t.
First, we were given our dorm assignments, and we got the short end of the stick- one of two dorms on campus without A/C. Going to school in Maryland, the summer to fall transition can be unbearably hot, so that was a bummer, even before moving in. No big deal, though. We can get through this.
Then, about 3 days before we moved in, my roommate called me, in tears, saying that she could no longer come to university, due to financial issues. We shared a tearful conversation over the phone, and then that was that- no perfect semester. It shocked me, all of a sudden I had no idea what I was coming in to, and now I was coming in alone.
On move-in day, the temperatures reached mid 90’s, which would have been unbearable in any circumstance, but moving into an already hot dorm made it just miserable. When I got to my room, there was another name on the door- Amy. I got excited and nervous all over again. Who was Amy? Would I love her or hate her? Would we get along?
Well, she wasn’t there yet. So I kept doing my thing, unpacking and talking with my parents. There was a Starbucks just across the street from my building, so we went there when I finished. And then they left, they left me alone. I tried to ignore the fact that I was alone, I put on music and tried to unpack my clothes and smaller things. I kept looking back at the door, thinking that my new best friend would walk through those doors.
They didn’t. And for my whole first month, I was roommate-less.
I started keeping to myself. I didn’t want anyone to feel bad for me, so I stayed in my room a lot. In high school, I was outgoing, talkative, and popular. I was never without a group to hang out with. My personality had completely disappeared.
There were a few girls on my floor that became my shining light. I met them through orientation, and honestly, I think they only hung out with me because they felt bad that I was utterly alone. I started going to lunch and dinner and football games with these girls, just so that I would have something to do, people to talk to. But, after a week with them, I started to really love them. Suddenly, I wasn’t so alone. I had friends again.
Slowly, my fun and energetic personality came back. I wasn’t sitting alone in my room as much, and I went out of my way to see these girls. I was still alone at night, but during the day I had a really solid group.
In mid October, I finally got a roommate. A girl that I had kind of known in high school was in a horrible situation with her current roommate and found refuge in my empty dorm. Lauren was fantastic, and even though we don’t live together anymore, I still think she was the best roommate ever.
Today, I live with two of the girls that I connected with in an off campus apartment. Living with my best friends is amazing. Its like a nonstop party of stupidity.
I personally believe that without these girls (the Scar-Squad as we called ourselves,) I would have kept the notion that college was horrible, maybe I would have transferred. Who knows? I don’t have to think about it now, though. Yeah, we were stuck in the worst dorm on campus with the worst RA at Towson, on a floor that consistently smelled overwhelmingly like weed and body odor. Sure we had communal bathrooms (for some reason my floor mates didn’t know how to flush a toilet,) and we had to do our homework in the hallway in little more than a sport bra and shorts just to slightly cool down. I love Towson, and the Scar Squad is to thank.
Even though we had a falling out at the end of freshman year, and we don't all talk like we used to anymore, I want to thank the Scar Squad for making my year awesome.
