Rollins College Home

R-Journals Home
Apply Now! Meet Aditya Meet Brittany Meet Daniel Meet Jenn Meet Omar
Meet Shannon
Admission R-Journals Feedback Campus Web Cam

R-Journals

Back to R-Journals home

Thank you ResLife

November 27, 2007

I remember reading during the summer how there are only two rooms in a hundred in Ward Hall that are triples. I used to say to myself, there are only two of them, what are the odds that I’ll be stuck in one of them, that’ll happen to someone else—not me.

“Big room, but why are there three beds?” I asked my favorite Resident Assistant, Amy Testa. I had met her in March before I came to Rollins and she’s one of the greatest people you’ll meet on campus. After having met Artie and Brett, I thought I was doomed—two Americans and a Latino?

“I thought Brett and I were going to be close because you were the foreigner,” Artie told me while on the trip down to Key West. He had invited me to spend Thanksgiving with his family, I had gone down once before during fall break, but that was for a few days, this time we had stayed a whole week.

Now Artie, he's a different story from Brett. With his Buddha-like wisdom, he's helped me overcome critical moments and I couldn't have been paired with a better roommate. From the same taste for Domino's Philly Cheese Steak Pizza to Moonlight Bowling at Aloma Bowl, we feel like hermanos. Without having known them, Artie's dad, mom, and grand-mother hugged me when we met. It's the warmth of beach people that I miss from Venezuela.

I could not have had a better friend for the first semester here at college. His mom offered to take me down to get my driver's license while we were at Key West and his grand-mother, aka "G," made her famous mac and cheese for me. When we drove down to Key West for the second time, we played each other's music and spoke about everything from girls to our high school days during the eight-hour long car ride.

“Poor kid, he thinks this is a normal family,” said Artie’s dad. This past week marked my first Thanksgiving in the US. I hadn’t fully comprehended the implications of the phrase ‘a lot of food’ until I actually saw it during lunch on the 22. Two turkeys—one cooked American style and the other Cuban style with mojo—and 30-plus side dishes gave pleasurable massages to my stomach. Lisa,

After watching the Packers beat the Lions and the Jets lose to the Cowboys, I was tired of football. Artie’s dad sent his mother and me to the local Walgreens for some Alka-Seltzer for what I thought was to help digestion. Artie’s dad was quick to point out to me, “It’s to make room for the dinner’s turkey sandwiches.”

On the ride back, three days after thanksgiving, I could still taste the turkeys, letting me live on one meal the Sunday we got back. I came to a realization once I hit campus; I said I was glad to be home. It’s only been three months since I’ve been on campus and I’m already calling this place home. I haven’t actually been home since August and even then I was only there for 10 days because I came to school right after I had come from a month-long trip to see my family in Morocco.

Brett is a golfer from Philadelphia and we share nothing! He likes the cold, I can’t stand it. He lives for golf, I don’t understand it (I don’t understand football either). He’s Jewish, I’m Muslim. He’s a Mac, and I’m a boring PC. But very much like that Mac vs. PC commercial with the hip kid in his twenties and the boring middle-aged guy, we both managed to get along.

He’s had a hard time adjusting to life at college and I’m having trouble being away from home for so long. Both our families are great distances away so we understand each other in that aspect. We have bumped into each other a lot with our different ways, such as AC temperature, your space-my space, and noise hours, but I found out that the only way to get across things is to say what bothers you. The more you keep it in your mind the longer the annoyance will fester your. We are not the best of friends and that’s the good thing of being roommates—we don’t have to be. What we are is conscious of one another and we will give a little to gain a little.

It used to be worse at the beginning because I wouldn’t speak my mind so the AC would be set at 50 degrees! After getting the cold twice within a month, we agreed on 65. It’s been getting progressively better, before thanksgiving he invited me to go see the Elton John concert. We drove over to the UCF Arena where he was playing and he had bought the ticket for me too, so it’s the kindnesses that matter in the end.

I think ResLife could not have paired Ward 300 better, putting in one of two triples in Ward a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim who get along! Maybe we’re the guinea pigs for the way they set up housing again in the future. For high school seniors who are looking to college next fall, a triple isn’t that bad. I enjoy it most when other hallmates see my room and gasp at our walk-in closet!

Photo 1: Thanksgiving with Artie's family in Key West, FL
Photo 2: My Adopted Parents
Photo 3: Sunset and Full Moon at the same time in Key West

R-Journals is a program sponsored by the Offices of Admissions and Public Relations & Communications. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Click here to send your comments.

Omar's R-Journal archives: