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july 13, 2000. I was reading the prospective students' guide to Acadia just now, and lamenting that all the advice focuses on 18 year old leaving home for the first time, when I found something really funny. Bearing in mind that I'll be moving out there with a husband in tow, this passage is incredibly amusing:
The person that is probably going to play the biggest role in your life over the next few months is your roommate. You will probably go out with him or her the first few nights, you will likely eat many of your meals with him or her, and you are definitely going to be sleeping with him or her every night.
One thing you should do early on is discuss your various preferences: Are you a morning or an evening person? How do you feel about overnight guests? Do either of you smoke? Do you want to share your food or not? You should get these issues out in the open and decide how you are going to deal with any potential conflicts.
The key is to compromise. For instance, if your roommate expects to be having a "friend" sleep over and that bothers you, you should ask that he or she try to limit it to one night each weekend. But that doesn't mean that you should pretend something doesn't bother you if it does. If you do that, you only set yourself up for a huge fight later on in the year.
You should also try to go out for a meal with your roommate - just the two of you. Make an effort to get to know different things about them, from their background to their family to their hobbies to their birthday (this is an especially important one, be sure to take note of it). It may seem like a stupid thing to do, but you are going to be spending a whole year with this person.
And don't worry if you and your roommate don't share an instant bond or if you don't seem to have much in common. It's more likely that you are going to end up best friends with the kid down the hall or the person you take Biology with or the girl you play soccer with. But that doesn't mean you can't have a good relationship with your roommate. You are always going to remember your roommate - and you want to try your best to make it a positive experience. My favourite is the part about overnight guests. I just hope that he can keep it down to one "friend" a week, or there may be problems...
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Yesterday we were sitting around the kitchen table, jawing about how regrettable it was that Michael (Morgan's son) couldn't be my ring bearer. He means more to me than a lot of people my age and would totally belong up there - the problem is that Morgan's in the wedding party herself and thus very distracted & needed elsewhere. There's just no one else coming to the wedding who would be able to take care of him if he needed taking care of. At this point, I mentioned idly that if Michael was my ring bearer, I'd make Sydney my flower girl. Sydney is the daughter of one of my mother's friends from nursing school. She is the most together girl I've ever met; totally competent, totally in control, totally adorable without being awkward. She...rocks, I guess is the best word.
Well. Today my mother had her friends over. They started a-talkin'. Syd's mom mentioned that she'd recently been in a consignment shop, looking at frilly little dresses. Notes were exchanged. Get this - if we can find a dress in the next little while, it's a go. I'm hoping for a ballerina-stylee dress, maybe with a tartan sash (Clan Campbell, of course). But anything girly will do. Man, I can't wait.
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Well, it looks like