Part 1: NSO
It’s mid-September. Most, if not all of your friends have already shipped off to college and you really cannot stand to wither away at home one day more. Then finally New Student Orientation rolls around and this is it, the moment you’ve been waiting for since you received your admission letter, it’s really happening and you can’t wipe the stupid grin glued to your face. It’s not until you’re sitting in MemAud, lanyard around your neck, shouting dorm chants and waving your dorm flag when you realize this isn’t college but college camp and you’ll have to wait a whole ‘nother week for the real one. Meanwhile this is first impression central. Everyone’s turned their peacocking up to level 10, many trying too hard to appear like they are not trying at all. That means biting your tongue when it comes to the long hours you studied in high school and only making references to your achievements in blasé comments so as not to come off as pretentious. Harry Potter, however, remains an eternally acceptable conversation topic and reference point.
Part 2: September – November
At long last, real college commences with all the chaos and excitement of first quarter freshman year. Every weekend is a crazy blur as you roam around the row in a wolf pack of at least 15 people. The people in your dorm are clearly the greatest people anyone could ever hope to meet and you have a new best friend each week. The hallways of your dorm are a row of open doors for you to pop in and make small talk or exhaust that one inside joke. If dorm love had nutritional value, you could spoon-feed buckets of it to an entire African nation. Somewhere in the periphery of all this ecstatic dorm affection, vague whisperings of sophomore housing arise. Everyone agrees to simply form several large draw groups and recreate their freshman dorm wherever they live next year.
Part 3: November – January
The dorm love continues to flow but slowly, you begin to realize you would rather hang out with the folks you have a stronger connection with and pursue more lasting friendships. Housing is just on the horizon and you decide you still want to live with most everyone from the dorm but maybe there are a few you can live without.
Part 4: February – June
By this point, you probably have a tight-knit, genuine friend group you want to room with and you think you’ve got it all perfectly figured out. That is, until another dormmate comes pleading to you to let her draw with you guys. Fracturing in the dorm may occur at this juncture as awkward tension arises while everyone scrambles to form draw groups. In some cases, it may get to the point where an outside mediator like an R.A. steps in to help ameliorate the situation. Greek rush complicates matters when the possibility arises that a future roommate or even you might decide to live in a sorority house instead. Some tears may be shed and egos may be bruised but odds are, you and your friends will make it out of the draw process alive and ready to take on another year at the Farm.