The Roommates Series, Part 1.

Fall Semester: You Mean I Have to Sleep There?!

I’m 18 and it’s 2 years post-high school since I took a gap year before embarking on my college journey.

I’m doe-eyed, excited, but super nervous as the longest time I spent away from home was a school day. Nonetheless, I was packed up and ready for my first collegiate year. 

I chose a small school in upstate New York nestled in the mountains—quite literally—it was actually a couple of minutes away from the infamous town of Sleepy Hollow. And yes, boys and girls, the drive up was just as spooky as the stories neatly nestled within town. I’m talking, disappearing cars, ominous state troopers, and of course, pure bone-chilling fear…

At this point, you’re probably confused but let me tell ya when our sunny day from the Bronx turned into white fog so heavy it felt like we were extras in that movie “The Fog”, the spooky meter went up to 100%. And like any out-of-towners in any scary movie, we made our way to a gas station where lone behold, some state troopers and their vehicles were out front.

Feeling at ease, we asked for directions, to which they replied the highways were closed and we could either use: side road #1 (a u-turn past them) or side road #2 (left and around). Fine, cool, we finally have some options but I crap you not, after mentioning side road #2 as an option, he said in the most country voice, “I wouldn’t go that way if I were y’all” ?!

At this point I can honestly say this was a GET OUT moment before the movie even came out as we all awkwardly laughed, proceeding to reverse and get up outta there.

Just as we waved out big thank-yous and did ½ the “U”, then made a u-turn to pass them again, THEY. WERE. GONE. All of them and every car, wagon, and cone.

Now I might have conveniently forgotten what the heck happened between that moment and actually arriving at school but the point is we side-roaded it—fog and all-cause I wasn’t missing move-in day! 

Finally there, we walk in and I’m greeted by this man. And I say man because I was used to the boys in high school but THIS was a whole different ball game.

Turns out his name was Zaid, and he was the equivalent of A Day to Remember (a metal rock band) song. I’m talking tattoos, piercings, super deep voice, confidence, and I’m dropping stuff, stuttering, and can’t collect my thoughts. So of course, I push my mom to do the talking, stay quiet, and try to formulate sentences that don’t make me sound like a noob.

Getting my room assignment, I’m met with the 6 girls who, unbeknownst to them, would be the start of the roommate brigade.

Nonetheless, they were all so nice and welcoming during this utterly hectic, and dare I say, overwhelming time that I thought everything just may turn out okay. That was until I saw that I’d be sharing a room with 2 girls instead of 1! Not a big deal you say, well it was when you find out my double occupancy room was now going to be a triple occupancy room that’s meant for 2 (but in all honesty, it was the size of a single)! 

Now, to put this in perspective to room assignment went like this:

Room #1: had 1 girl (who happened to be the RA – important detail for later)

Room #2: had 2 girls

Room #3: had 3 girls …wait, what? 

Now my math isn’t that great, I’m actually math dyslexic but if you have 6 girls and 3 rooms…well, you get the point.

Needless to say, the first night there was H.E.L.L. I legit worked off no sleep, getting only a few flutters of shut-eye on the living room couch—again another thing that’s super fuzzy to remember. All I know is I was tired, my back hurt, and I’d have given anything to sleep in an actual bed that didn’t have an overhead bunk 12 inches from my pillow (yep, that was the offer and I chose the to sleep couch)!

Unbeknownst to me, my mom (bless her heart) was making calls and doing that mom thang to get me out of that triple. Of course, I only found out about said supermom after a) her telling me when I came back home for Thanksgiving and b) Zaid (you remember the manly man) telling me that my mom called him his RA phone at 3 am trying to get the room situation fixed and that he couldn’t do anything about it.

Gah, I’m getting second-hand embarrassment even reliving how mortified I was because the only thing I could hear him saying was “your mom called me…at 3 am” and nothing else. 

But if you thought that was rough, wait until you hear about what happened when I actually got out of the triple.

So here we have it! Part 1 of The Roommate Series, I hope y’all stick along as we relive a big part of my college journey.

Here’s a sneak peek for part 2:

“…I get ahead of myself, I’m told I’m moving into a new room and I’m torn about going. Since my RA was my suitemate, she definitely took me under her wing and decided to try and facilitate an easy transition into my new room. 

We went to visit and everybody seemed nice enough. My new roommate wasn’t really a talker but ehh I get it. We all get chatting and everything seems fine.

When I went to visit a second time to tell them I was officially moving in, I noticed the layout of the room was different. Now, this wouldn’t have been a big deal if a) said roommate would have just asked before changing the room layout and b) if said roommate would have just asked about changing the layout. You catch my drift…”

What would you major in if you had the opportunity to ‘redo’ college?