This is/was my room. On the bed is the big bear my fiancé got me for Valentine's day and transported himself from the bus station in our home town to the greyhound station in downtown Atlanta, on the MARTA, and in the uber, all the way to Dempsey. Above the bed are my personal drawings, to the left are post-its reminding me of the characters for Japanese Katakana. On the post of the bed are 3 purses I don't use, the one I do, my Oglethorpe bag from scholarship weekend that I used for my classes, and my laptop bag. The floor looks great because I used the vacuum for once compared to the several times that my roommate did. -Pray for a roommate who cleans when she's bored. Oh yeah, and on the floor is the white furry rug that my roommate turned rainbow-ish when she returned back from a color fight the first week.

Dempsey A3-A is where I called home from move in day all the way up to move out day. Rest-assured, you won't have to break in much. Dance parties have already taken place in the common room, the shower, and my suitemates' room. We took it upon ourselves to wait until second semester to figure out that the low peephole below the regular height one on the door is there because our room is handicap capable, to leave shampoo on the support rod in the shower, and empty toilet paper rolls on the rail next to the toilet. My suitemates brought drawers and left them in the bathroom under the sink to keep their bathroom things, which is a good idea since Dempsey rooms on other floors come with bathroom cabinets. Another fair warning, -it'll really pay to know this straight off- When you first walk in on the wall to your left, closest to the door to the first room written on the wall in glow-in-the-dark nail polish are the words "I see you". We didn't do it, but discovered it the first week of first semester and made sure to promptly tell our RA. When you move out you pay for anything that's found and deemed damage, even if it was someone else's fault so better safe than sorry.


This room was there for me every night working through second semester. It was where I had wonderful moments with my then boyfriend -now fiancé-, sleeping together in the common room on the futon. It was a really great place to call my own in September when I walked back to the room after study group for a "roommate meeting" to talk about shower schedules and such, and was greeted with a surprise party for my birthday. The common room walls are great for hanging streamers, but try not to make the whole first floor smell like smoke from birthday candles on a home-made cake, or trick candles on a Godzilla cake. No matter what you have in the common room, it's great for late nights with ramen, a playlist, and a laptop finishing up a paper due the next afternoon. A3's common room is also the best for opening the window that faces Jobe and communicating with friends who need to be let in the building. Your RA or anyone willing to lend a hand might need to help if the blinds start falling off when you're closing or opening them. Make sure to make the space homey, it's weird and different living in a dorm and not at home whether you live 2 hours away or 20 minutes away.


Room A in particular is great for covering the wall above your desk and your bed in personal drawings, a Nightmare Before Christmas poster, and sentimental keepsakes from the year...and not factoring in the complication that would be taking them down when move out time comes. If you love the option to see what you look like even if you're the only one who will see you, you should take a que from my roommate and I, and cover the inner closet door with a mirror. You could be like me, and fill your bedroom and the first month with random YouTube vloggers talking about their roommate horror stories, with your roommate in the room. I...honestly just sort of assumed she was cool with no headphones because she didn't say otherwise, and I just sat back relieved. Sorry, roomie.


The common room is also great for yoga in the morning while your roommate and/or suitemate is attending their 9:15 or 9:45 class. The space is awesome and copious, but it was also well used. If you find yourself standing in the open common room and looking out of the big window and feel like something is missing maybe it's a couple shelves filled with health foods and cooking supplies, or a white board to write messages on? Or it could be the not one, but two acquired tennis balls on the window sill. Or the plastic gourds and yams taken from some dining hall event in November, possibly First Friday. Speaking of holidays, when Halloween, birthdays, Christmas, and Thanksgiving come along, the door and the room will get sad if they aren't decorated.


Speaking of Christmas, you just may hear echoes of the Christmases my roommates and I spent with our friend at the end of first semester. Everyone off their phones, a virtual fireplace on screen, stockings and presents opened with everyone there, before heading off to EggsAM. I was really surprised by the thoughtful gifts I received from everyone-if you have the opportunity to make each other feel heart-warmed like that, then take it. Appreciate the activity that will usually be going on in there when you get home from work, class, dinner, wherever.


Dempsey first floor was reserved starting last year for students in the honor program and is therefore the only hall who had a male RA, the only co-ed floor, and the only honors floor with about 2 or 3 honor students. I was the only one of my roommates to be taking a course for honors credit. I don't know how they'll organize that in the coming up year, but just know whether or not you're taking an honors course your roommates will gladly help with studying and offer words of encouragement. Good places to study/places to give a try if your room isn't cutting it: the laundry room, the basement, the first floor common room, other common rooms with helpful things like desks. That'd be if one is just thinking of Dempsey. One of the most helpful ways for me to study was to find a time when I had nothing really to do, like a weekend and spend hours in the dining hall. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner can be eaten while you catch up on some reading for class, write a 5 page paper, write an odyssey article, whatever you need to devote time to. Sometimes, I would just eat and then scroll through Facebook, though. Just once or twice.


A3 is the best place to be frugal and save the disposable cups from when the dishwasher stops working in the dining hall, and for pregaming before basically all the frat parties and some sorority events. You will find it very hard to fill the cabinet space above the closet. There's just too much room, though I'm thankful. I may have jumped around subjects and gone off on a few tangents, but this is really just a subtle warning that my roommates and I will be haunting A3. Maybe not in spirit since we aren't actually ghosts, but I think you'll be sitting in your/my bed at night that first week after move in and you just might hear the faint sound of the theme song to "The Office" playing in the common room.