First Impressions: Alyssa R.

Alyssa R:  College.  It was finally happening!  I got my acceptance letter!  I got my roommate assignment!  I found out that I would live on the North side of campus where all the bars were, and people kept telling me that I wouldn’t be able to sleep because of all the crazies.  In retrospect, I never found that to be the case.  The reason I couldn’t sleep wasn’t because of the people outdoors, but rather because of the people indoors.  Inside my room, to be more specific.  Also, not me.  So, that should narrow it down.  The first day that I moved in, I was terrified of going outside.  I had a tiny fridge, a mango, the first season of “I Love Lucy” and a campus map that I had to commit to memory.  That was plenty of company and I certainly wasn’t complaining.  I needed like, a week to observe my surroundings.  For the record, I might be slightly over-cautious. 

My first roommate called me multiple times, leaving pleasant voicemails on my cell phone, trying to find out what I was like and see if I was a weirdo or not.  Honestly, I didn’t return a single phone call, we were never Facebook friends, and I didn’t text, so she probably thought I was a weirdo.  I moved in first that semester into a room on the fourth floor.  That is not an easy task, by the way, mostly for my dad.  When I told him that I was living on the second floor the next year, he was wayyy more excited than me.  I finally got settled in and as I waited for her to arrive, I arranged my things and imagined my new freedoms of college.  I could go to McDonalds at 2 in the morning!  I would never do that…but I could!  I could buy a llama!  I could eat nothing but ice cream for 48 hours!  I could build a gerbil haven in my closet and get seventeen gerbils!  Until I found out I could only have fish according to dorm rules (which were in the dorm handbook, which I also read in blissful solitude) but unfortunately, I’m a terrible fish owner.  Don’t ask.

 I heard the door open, and she came inside with her family, all her things packed in…beer boxes.  Not even kidding.  I don’t think I saw a single suitcase.  Just beer boxes.  That’s when I started to worry.  However, my fears seemed unfounded, she was very nice, talkative, obviously outgoing and she seemed to get along with everybody.  I was the reclusive, quiet one reading the dorm handbook, campus map and nothing else for three hours.  For the record, I never got lost.

 Well, it became clear that she was quite the social butterfly, going out late and staying out late.  I literally wouldn’t see her for days at a time.  I, however, was totally fine with the time alone; it didn’t bother me at all.  I think that’s how bears feel when they hibernate.  That’s a good term for my activity (or lack thereof) that first week: social hibernation.  One time, I remember I was sitting on the bed watching her television (I was SO glad she brought a TV) and peeling a mango with a paring knife like a jungle dweller or something.  No plate, nothing.  Just a mango.  She came inside and looked at me like I was…sigh…a weirdo.  I’m pretty sure neither one of us had too much in common.  We didn’t talk much.  It wasn’t what I expected. 

 

Throughout the week, I met a new girl down the hallway with the same name as me, Alyssa, who was also quite outgoing, but in a very different way.  We would sit on the side of my bed and talk about the awkward things that we’d experienced so far, and we both had plenty of stories.  She invited me to things and tried to yank me out of my shell, which I appreciated although she may not have known that I did at the time.  The weird thing is that both of our roommates got along as well; they liked going out, we liked staying in.  By the end of the week, we all simply traded roommates, and little did I know, nothing would be the same!          

First Impressions Alyssa L

Alyssa L: Coming to college, I had the hopes and dreams of every 18-year old girl. What are those dreams? I have no idea. But I was excited to meet new people, try new things, and to get out of the sheltered lifestyle that had been raised in all my life. YES, I was excited for this thing called college and to start my new life, while possibly getting some kind of education (though this was just an afterthought).

I was so excited for College I made my parents make sure we got to the campus as early as possible on the first day of move-in day, so I could move into my new place. My new room, the place I have been waiting for my whole life where I could spread my wings and learn to fly, my dorm room. Yes I had been waiting for my dorm room my whole life. A 12 feet by 28 feet room with 4 closets, a bathroom, two beds, 2 desks, and 2 drawers. My dorm room was on the fourth floor (the highest one in our building), so I took the trek up there with the first load of my stuff. When I got there my roommate was not yet there, so I got to pick my side of the room and started unloading everything. I left the room for a few hours and then came back to find my new roommate. She seemed nice and all but I didn’t really get to talk with her. Well I never really did get to meet her that well, cause 1 week later we switched roommates, but this is some of what happened during that first week….

Well the girl must have thought I was nuts, cause the very first night of college when everyone is out expressing their new found freedom, I decided to sleep. It was about 10pm and I looked at my new roommate and told her “It’s 10. I think it is time to go to bed. We should go to bed, don’t you think?” She actually agreed with me and I wouldn’t find out until later how silly this thought was. Going to bed at 10, really? What was I thinking? I should have gone to bed at 9.

By the second night, my roommate wanted to go out and party. That was totally cool with me, I sat in my room reading my 979 page book that I really wanted to finish. The next day I was up by 6, and she slept in till lunch. This was no problem for me (I was totally bored), I quietly sat in the room reading my book and waiting for her to get up. (She took forever) So yeah my roommate was a partier, I figured this out around the third night when she didn’t come home. I texted her just asking her if she was alive, and yay she responded. I guess she was alive. That night she had gotten herself a boyfriend and they spent a lot of time together. Once I was walking to my room and somebody told me not to go in there. I was like why would I not go in there, it’s my room? I opened the door, and realized why I wasn’t allowed to go into my own room. I’ll leave it at that. Let’s just say my sheltered eyes were opened. Opened very wide.

Well it turns out that my roommate and I would be very different. Lucky I met this girl down the hall, who would eventually become my new roommate….. and that is where the story begins.

An Introduction

Alyssa L:  Should we write an introduction and tell people why we're doing this?
Alyssa R:  Why are we doing this?
Alyssa L:  Cause it's fun!
Alyssa R: Okay!