The First Day

Alright, summer already began and I’ve successfully done nothing. Well, unless you count eating oreos and watching the travel channel all day a worthwhile activity, because I do. Its been about six weeks since the end of my freshman year at college, vcu for those who don't know me that well, and I feel that, yes, yes things have changed.

At the beginning of my freshman year at VCU I felt empowered; the feeling of “I take no shit from no one anymore” swelled up inside me. When I walked into my building it was a frenzy, people escorting me from here to here, from there to there, sign here, initial here, pick up your keys here, drop off your car there, it was crazy, and I was dizzy. So we got a couple boxes from my car and started moving into my building. We waited for the elevator, ding, door opens and me my sister and my mom, some guy that I would later learn live on the eleventh floor, and a pile of boxes stuff into the elevator. “Small elevator” I thought, little would I know I would call this the “big” elevator.

When the door opened onto the ninth floor, the smell of dorm floored me. It wasn't a new smell; I have experienced this smell before when visiting my sisters at their schools. The smell was distinctly college, like cleaning products and warm laundry. The building was old, paint chipping away, marks on doors from ages ago. The hallway that led to my door was long, almost hospital-like. I passed the bathroom on my right, blue and for the only time it ever will be this year, clean. I hung a louie and came upon my residence for the next months, 906. I inserted the key, forcefully turned the key and doorknob and entered my room. The first sight was white; white floors, walls, and ceiling. We had 2 desks 2 sets of drawers, 2 beds, and 2 closets, a luxury. I gazed out of my 9th floor window onto the world below. From the busy Brandt/Rhoads patio, to the distant highway, It dawned on me that this, this is what I’ll wake up to see every morning, this is what I’ll see before I go to bed, this is what I will see when I aimlessly sit at my desk gazing out the window when I have half an hour before my paper is due and I still have to type a page. This window would also become an important tool to judge what I shall wear today, and if Jeanine is really “leaving the building” as she says she is.

I made myself look busy while my mom set up my bad and my sister kept punching me in my arm. As we left the building I could tell that this was the “light hour” and that there is just more to come. We drove of to target to get some forgotten goods and got a bite to eat. As we pulled up in front of my building it was a whirl of freshmen, yellow shirts, and parents.

I got out said my goodbyes and anxiously awaited the new life before me. From the second my family pulled away from Johnson Hall, down Franklin St, and out of view, I really felt like I was on my own; as “on my own” I can be with no job, no microwave, and most of my money in my checking account coming from the parents. When I went back up to my room I met my roommate for the first time; Big lumbering guy, complete visual opposite of me, tall, hairy, white, metal rocker. I greeted my fellow passenger in this fine room of 906 and began to unpack the important items. I pulled out my laptop and promptly began to set up the security cable. With 906 being the only double room with closets on the floor, I began to hang up my clothes; button ups that had followed me through high school now reside in a new home.

Feeling awkward in the room while John, my roommate, unpacked and his parents and siblings helped, I grabbed my iPod and headed out on my first trek around campus. Walking down the hall, passing by open doors, I caught scenes of people unpacking, talking to their parents, or soaking in the new surroundings. These people would become the annoying neighbors, the drinking buddies, the bad influences, and the friends that I would make in the coming months. I walked down the packed sidewalk in front of Johnson; this was before they widened the pathway. I decided that I was hungry and went to Shafer. At Shafer, I ate alone. By myself with my iPod, which from then on seemed to become permanently attached to my ears, I watched the other people. I watched them eat with their parents, with each other, and thought that these kids are going through the same things I am, these are the kids that I will see here from now on. Yeah I know I think this a lot, but just glance over that fact. Three-fourths of the way through my soup someone tapped me on my shoulder.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” The mystery guy said. He was white, about my height, with brown hair, and he was wearing a white striped polo.

“What?” I must have sounded rude, but I was wearing my headphones and barely understood what her said. He kindly repeated and I allowed him to sit down. We exchanged niceties; names, ages, majors, and dorms, all of which I don't remember what he said, except that he was in Rhoads, I think. Then there was a silence. I asked him where he was from and all that then I said where I was from too. He seemed really interested in Virginia Beach. When I was done with my soup, I, being as socially awkward as I am excused myself from the table. I think my exact words were, “Sorry to leave you alone here, you know, at the table; but I got to get going now.” We said goodbye, and I never saw him again. I would have facebooked him, but honestly, I don't remember his name. Unless he facebooked me, and he’s one of my random friends on there, that explains a lot.

So anyways lets end this story, I went back to the dorm, John and his family weren’t there, and I unpacked. I made my first call home from college, and then I decided to read with the door open; might as well make these people think I’m smart before they actually get a chance to talk to me. John came back and I was reading, and he came up with this good idea; well I’m not sure if we did this on the first day, or if we did this in the first week, but it's a good story so listen up. This is the first thing John and me did as roommates, this makes it sound like we did more things, but we really didn't. He comes up with this idea for our corkboard on our door.

“Hey, we should put up pictures of like, donkeys and caption it like, ‘John’s ass lives here’. That’ll be awesome.” I agreed, and we went to our respective computers and found pictures of donkeys. We show each other the fruits of our labors and his response is, “Aww, you have like the saddest cutest donkey ever.” I could tell from then on, this was gonna be a good year. We stapled our asses to the board and waited as the people came by to compliment our asses. For the first month, every girl who walked pass our door would compliment our asses. Of course they would say “I think his ass is cute,” to me, wink.

That night, we slept in our respective beds. Well John slept. This was the night I discovered I have a lion as a roommate. In the middle of the night I was awakened by John’s roars many call snoring. It was like a jet taking off every 5 to 10 seconds. I obviously couldn’t do anything, so I covered my head with two pillows and a comforter and tried to sleep. I would soon grow used to this, and learn strategies to a restful night of sleep.