When applying to residence at Queen’s University, my first choice was to have a single room, like all other college students. When I thought about school, I seldom pictured myself living with someone else. Regardless, I was always open minded to having a roommate, thinking it would be nice to have the company. Still, I preferred living alone because I liked being alone and enjoyed my independence.
So when the day finally arrived to view my residence assignment, I eagerly sat at my laptop, waiting for the assignment to be uploaded. I clicked refresh over and over and over again (Yes, I was that kid) until it showed up. I anxiously clicked on the View Current Assignment tab, and read that I was living in Victoria Hall. I thought, Yay! That’s the residence I was secretly hoping for. Then I saw the rest of the room details . . . it read Triple Room.
I thought that this was awesome because it would be like having a never ending sleepover. However, there was a small part of me that was disappointed. I felt like I was going to be missing out on the true university experience of living all by myself.
Regardless, I hastily fired up an e-mail to both of my roommates, telling them where I was from, what program I was in and how excited I was that we were going to be living together. I thought that this was perfectly normal because all of the upper years on our Facebook group told us that any friend requests from random people over the weekend were our roommates, so we should accept them and begin the bonding process. Besides, we were all given each other’s e-mails in the room assignment which suggested we should contact each other.
Unfortunately, I was the only one out of the three of us that thought this way.
I repeatedly checked my e-mail over the course of the weekend, hoping for some sort of acknowledgment. The most I received was an accepted friend request from Cleo. She didn’t answer, though, when I messaged her. When I still received no reply from either of my roommates, my excitement of living with two other people began to fade. I began to worry that we were not going to get along with each other which would make for quite the uncomfortable living situation for the next eight months.
One afternoon, though, I finally heard from Cleo. Though it was a brief response, I was relieved that she had e-mailed me. A few days later, I heard from Willow, and shortly after that, we began talking through Facebook. Before I knew it, Willow and I had stayed up until two o’clock in the morning getting to know each other.
Move in day finally arrived, and all I felt was pure excitement. I couldn’t wait to begin my new life at Queen’s and get acquainted with Willow and Cleo.
Being a Kingstonian, Cleo was already moving in by the time I arrived in our room with my first round of massive luggage. She seemed very shy, and all I wanted to do was get to know her!
Once all of my things were moved in, I began to hang up my posters because I couldn’t stand to look at the bare cinderblock any longer. Cleo rolled her eyes, and I couldn’t understand why. They were just posters of half-naked guys. Normal, teenage girl stuff.
I later found out that Cleo had thought my poster of a shirtless Charlie Hunnam was Jesus, and this led her to believe that I was an extremely zealous Christian, which she certainly is not. I was reassured to learn later that was all a huge misunderstanding.
It wasn’t until Frosh Week began that Cleo and I began to bond. I think we first bonded when she returned from her Frosh activities and began practicing her dance for her nursing group in our room. We were both killing ourselves laughing, and I finally felt like she was opening up to me. I was comforted to learn that I liked who she was. When I asked Cleo how she first felt about living in a triple, she said, “I cried. I wanted a single in Leggett or Watts Hall.”
On the other hand, Willow and I had bonded instantly. We were going out and doing things together, like participating in our Residence Orientation and exploring the campus. Neither of us had any trouble connecting or being ourselves around each other. Willow said, “I was happy that I was with people. I wanted a double, so I was unsure about a triple.”
As Frosh Week progressed, I was starting to feel more and more homesick to the point where I decided to go stay with my sister for the weekend. Cleo and Willow were completely supportive and understanding of my decision, and it was in this moment that I felt like we had become friends.
Once classes began, and we started getting back into a routine, we all began to learn to work around each other. Since our schedules differ so greatly, we have times where we are each alone in the dorm room, or where we are all together. Our schedules don’t conflict and we manage to agree when it’s quiet time for reading or studying, or when it’s time to socialize.
When I meet new people and I reveal that I am living in a triple room, their reaction is: “Oh. How’s that going . . .?” They say it in such a negative tone and I simply can’t understand why. My response to their tentative question is: “It’s awesome, actually! I love it. My roommates and I are so close, and our room is the hangout spot for everyone on our floor.”
Now that we know each other and have become such great friends, our room finally feels like home to me. Cleo says, “I love it. So much,” about living in a triple room.
“I feel like I couldn’t have gotten a more perfect room assignment,” Willow says.
Somewhere in between spontaneous dance parties, sleeping in each other’s beds, tackling each other, eating way too much food instead of going to the gym, forgetting to wake each other up for class, and offering advice and teasing each other about boys, we became friends.
Living in a triple room has been the best experience of university yet. I feel like I have grown as a person, I am more social, and I have great work habits. My roommates support me, encourage me, and make sure that I take a break when I need it. I haven’t laughed this much in my entire life until I moved here. Willow and Cleo are like the two crazy sisters I never had growing up. “Our weirdness meshes completely,” Willow and Cleo agreed.