Crash! I’m awake, gallons of pure adrenaline pumping through my veins. A million items and anecdotes to remember. It’s six a.m. and I’m scrambling to remember to pack enough clothes or better yet brush my teeth. Quickly and hastily there’re multitude of items being shoved in the car. Eighteen years of my life practically had to fit in there, at least what I wanted to remember from it.
Pictures, notebooks, boxes, bins, were all going through my mind like a wind tunnel on repeat. Going to the bathroom to promptly urinate and stuff the fluff-ball of frizz, known as my hair into the biggest Jersey looking bun in existence just to keep cool for the day ahead of me. Before leaving the house of beige carpeting and faded footprints of my past self, I walk past a mirror to check if the crazy look was decent enough to present to the universe. Wildly enough the ensemble of faded army green shorts and basic floral Old Navy shirt topped off with the Snooki bun wasn’t the boldest part of the look. That’s when I took a quick half-eyed squint at my neck where a huge red-circle of doom seemingly looking like a bruise happened to be.
The size of a miniature hockey puck and eighty degree weather created a more visible viewing space than I craved. Here it was the first day of starting a new life, my life, and brand new impressions with a hickey you could see from Jupiter from my Brazilian boyfriend’s lips on my freakin’ neck. Luckily there was no time to truly process that. All I had to truly think about was not forgetting my pillow and the pure energy burst from getting maybe two hours of sleep the night before. My mind at the time was like a racehorse just trying to find the Derby.
Getting through the many checklists upon lists not only by myself, but also my parentals, it was finally time to fly the coop. On the long road to college, where I could sit and look out the window to have last minute dropping out ideas fluttering throughout my scattered mind. Committed and curious I felt like a disney princess waiting for her prince or some magical spell to start her life. It honestly felt like any other drive I had taken with my family, like we were just going to the store to go grocery shopping. I guess it was my own personal grocery shopping experience this time, except there was only one thing on the list; my degree.
Boom there it was, I saw before my peculiar eyes the big, white hovering chicken building ahead. With smiling, wise-looking people motioning with one hand in a circular come-hither motion and an arrow stating, “Freshman Move-in”, in the other pointing sharply right. The sun was beaming bright as kids with water bottle packs and parents with fans were fast-walking across the parking lot, with purpose in their eyes. I thought I was an early bird. Dozens of families and new college freshmen were already here, looking like they were training to be bodybuilders with how many items were piled in their arms.
It was finally me and my parents time to shine with our strategic moving planning skills and lifting instincts. This started with going into the trunk of the vehicle and grabbing however much we could fit in our hands to bring inside. Strutting down the hot pavement with one shoe untied I made it to the entrance of the building only to be stopped by the authority. The building stood high with bricks and a worn-like comfort. Promptly I glanced to see the name above, “Bonner Hall”, perfectly appropriate for the day’s starting energy.
Five signatures later I was carefully handed a key and I gladly stepped foot inside a slightly less humid building with one or two fans rattling around. With mailbox slots and lobby-like entrance it felt like a motel. The only exception was decor from the show, The Office, running a muck throughout the main entrance. Elevators were seemingly occupied, so exercise was my only true route. Walking up those steps there were only two things that dawned on my mind.
One, I’m glad I’m only living on the second floor. Two, oh yeah I haven’t even met my roommate yet. I could barely finish those thoughts and I was already on the second floor. White cemented walls were ahead, with a main window to look out into the only view, a courtyard. So much noise was surrounding the halls with beds being debunked and high pitched laughs echoing the halls.
Every door was painted blue and had each roommates’ names on them like dogs in a kennel. The meet and greet with my future roommate was upon me as I turned this slightly brassed key in the knob. Only to find an empty room with a plethora of bags and a comforter on one bed. Cautiously I start putting down the garbage can filled with various knick knacks to bring up first, next to my new heavy looking wooden desk. Louder joyous voices came closer to the door then there she was, Brenna H., my new roomie, hands full and already giving and receiving instructions from her parents on how to set-up a sleek brand-new flat screen.
She looked at me shocked and wore a happily confusing grin on her face as she embraced me with a hug. Her parents warmly shook my hand and my parents as grimaces washed over their faces. I then remembered I had a saucer-sized red circle on my neck, which my parents tried to hide with amusing conversation. Instantly though, we started helping each other put command strips on the wall and laugh about the heat and how many things we brought. Once we finally got the sheets wrapped around the bed correctly and the parents finally said goodbye we were ready to explore our new habitat.
Swiftly grabbing my bag of candy as a bargaining chip we walked around offering food as a means of making long-lasting friendships. This only lasted until we clicked with our next door neighbors. Liz, a supremely put-together blonde, was the first one who invited us in their dorm and we instantly bonded through our love of snacks, which she had even more of and better quality too. The other roommate named Maya, who had dark hair and was constantly laughing and occupied. Her first sentence uttered to us was, “Hi, I’m Maya I was adopted from an Indian orphanage”. Instantly then I knew we had stumbled upon great friendships. After some more casual conversation we exchanged Snapchat information and phone numbers and my roommate and I felt accomplished.
We headed back to our heavily humid room and started just talking and asking about classes, where buildings are, the essential factor that we must wear shower shoes in the shower. The final question I truly was tentative about, I asked, “So, where do we go to change?”, with genuine curiosity. My newly founded roommate just laughed abruptly and stated, “Here of course”, with absolutely no hesitation. Feeling like the doofus with the large burn looking spot on my neck, I looked over giggling and just uttered, “oh..cool”, seemingly to go on to our regularly scheduled ramble of conversation. Ready to take on the heat and the rest of the day with an unstoppable duo vibe.
Almost like a never-ending camp sleepover, swapping our versions of real-life stories and bonding over pre-packaged unhealthy food. And suddenly the red-circle of doom seemed to be slightly smaller and the air was nothing, but calm, cool, and collected… for now.