asked.
“Linda. Our other roommate.” And that was how she broke the news that there would a third girl sharing our room.
A week later, I finally received the letter confirming that I indeed had two roommates: LaVerne Van Arden from New Haven, Connecticut and Linda Kingsley from St. Paul, Minnesota. Two weeks before I left for Florida, I finally worked up the courage to call Linda.
“Hello?” the woman who answered the phone had a heavy Fargo-esque accent.
“Is Linda there?”
“May I tell her who is calling?”
“This is Tamara…”
“Oh,” the simple word brought to mind Minnesotans in heavy down coats with faux fur hoodies over their heads. “You’re Linda’s other roommate. Aren’t you so excited for college?”
“Yes ma’am. I am.” I said hesitantly. I was prepared to speak to Linda about whether her VCR would support my Magnavox TV hook-up, not to have a moving-into-college-psyching-up talk with whom I presumed was her mother. After a few other niceties, Linda was finally put on the phone. Her hesitant tone did not imply she was, to put in the words of her mother, “so excited for college,” but she did confirm the VCR would be compatible with my TV.
“So, I guess I’ll see you on move-in day,” I told her as a way of signing-off.
“All-righty then!” Linda replied.
Exactly at seven I headed out of my dorm. The sun still shined as bright then as it did during midday, and my body had to adjust to coming from the air conditioned dorm to the outside heat. I glanced around the courtyard. The four dorms of the complex were arranged in a sort-of deformed diamond with a lounge and computer lab in the middle. There were seven such communes—an ample metaphor considering the buildings themselves were 60’s relics—on campus. Each was named after a letter in the Greek Alphabet, and each had its own stereotype, possibly to make up for Eckhart’s long ago dismissal of sororities and fraternities. Throughout the twenty-eight dorms, two were declared to be “Substance Free,” meaning alcohol and drugs were specifically banned from these dorms. Our dorm, Gandhi, was one of them. That, combined with the fact that Gandhi was also one of the few single-sex ones, contributed to the dubious nickname “The Virgin Vault.” The other dorm on our side of the computer lab also happened to be girls only, which meant the girl-to-guy ratio was much higher in Alpha than in other places on campus.
Only a handful of people milled about in the courtyard in front of the computer lab. Since I didn’t recognize any of them, I trudged back to my dorm room.
“Now what?” I asked myself. My TV hadn’t been hooked up yet, and LaVerne hadn’t instructed either of us to bring a computer. I lost myself in a book for another hour before I started to hear the sounds of a party becoming full-swing. I debated avoiding the party altogether and staying in to read all night. As I picked up my book, I could hear my twin sister’s voice calling me lame. “You’re like, the Queen of the Nerds,” Corrie would tell me if she were here, watching me grasp the novel in my hand as I slipped off my shoes. I remembered my resolve to not put up the same walls I had erected in high school after Corrie and Kellen started dating. I put the book back on my desk and slid the straps of my sandals back over my ankles as I steeled myself to go back out and try to meet new people.
The glass front of the dorm confirmed there were quite a few more people out there than last time. I pushed open the heavy outside door and walked out. I could feel my face heat up and had to fight my instincts to run back inside before the door shut behind me. It must have been my imagination, but it felt like everyone outside was staring at me, sizing me up, like there was a giant sign pointed at me declaring I didn’t know anyone.
I headed to the refreshment table in order to have a purpose for being outside. Biting into a stale brownie, I glanced
“Linda. Our other roommate.” And that was how she broke the news that there would a third girl sharing our room.
A week later, I finally received the letter confirming that I indeed had two roommates: LaVerne Van Arden from New Haven, Connecticut and Linda Kingsley from St. Paul, Minnesota. Two weeks before I left for Florida, I finally worked up the courage to call Linda.
“Hello?” the woman who answered the phone had a heavy Fargo-esque accent.
“Is Linda there?”
“May I tell her who is calling?”
“This is Tamara…”
“Oh,” the simple word brought to mind Minnesotans in heavy down coats with faux fur hoodies over their heads. “You’re Linda’s other roommate. Aren’t you so excited for college?”
“Yes ma’am. I am.” I said hesitantly. I was prepared to speak to Linda about whether her VCR would support my Magnavox TV hook-up, not to have a moving-into-college-psyching-up talk with whom I presumed was her mother. After a few other niceties, Linda was finally put on the phone. Her hesitant tone did not imply she was, to put in the words of her mother, “so excited for college,” but she did confirm the VCR would be compatible with my TV.
“So, I guess I’ll see you on move-in day,” I told her as a way of signing-off.
“All-righty then!” Linda replied.
Exactly at seven I headed out of my dorm. The sun still shined as bright then as it did during midday, and my body had to adjust to coming from the air conditioned dorm to the outside heat. I glanced around the courtyard. The four dorms of the complex were arranged in a sort-of deformed diamond with a lounge and computer lab in the middle. There were seven such communes—an ample metaphor considering the buildings themselves were 60’s relics—on campus. Each was named after a letter in the Greek Alphabet, and each had its own stereotype, possibly to make up for Eckhart’s long ago dismissal of sororities and fraternities. Throughout the twenty-eight dorms, two were declared to be “Substance Free,” meaning alcohol and drugs were specifically banned from these dorms. Our dorm, Gandhi, was one of them. That, combined with the fact that Gandhi was also one of the few single-sex ones, contributed to the dubious nickname “The Virgin Vault.” The other dorm on our side of the computer lab also happened to be girls only, which meant the girl-to-guy ratio was much higher in Alpha than in other places on campus.
Only a handful of people milled about in the courtyard in front of the computer lab. Since I didn’t recognize any of them, I trudged back to my dorm room.
“Now what?” I asked myself. My TV hadn’t been hooked up yet, and LaVerne hadn’t instructed either of us to bring a computer. I lost myself in a book for another hour before I started to hear the sounds of a party becoming full-swing. I debated avoiding the party altogether and staying in to read all night. As I picked up my book, I could hear my twin sister’s voice calling me lame. “You’re like, the Queen of the Nerds,” Corrie would tell me if she were here, watching me grasp the novel in my hand as I slipped off my shoes. I remembered my resolve to not put up the same walls I had erected in high school after Corrie and Kellen started dating. I put the book back on my desk and slid the straps of my sandals back over my ankles as I steeled myself to go back out and try to meet new people.
The glass front of the dorm confirmed there were quite a few more people out there than last time. I pushed open the heavy outside door and walked out. I could feel my face heat up and had to fight my instincts to run back inside before the door shut behind me. It must have been my imagination, but it felt like everyone outside was staring at me, sizing me up, like there was a giant sign pointed at me declaring I didn’t know anyone.
I headed to the refreshment table in order to have a purpose for being outside. Biting into a stale brownie, I glanced
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