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!