The first time I rode on a plane alone was from Austin, Texas to Roanoke, Virginia. I made this trip for a college program I had been accepted to, at Hollins University. I was excited, because they had one of the best writing programs in the country, but I was also a little anxious. It was an all girls school.
Now, if you knew me, you would know most of my closest friends are boys. If I’m put in a room with lots of people, I will gravitate towards the males. I’m just more comfortable around them. Girls make me uncomfortable. (No, I am NOT a lesbian. It’s just hard for me to find girls that I get along with. Too much testosterone in the womb or something. I don’t know)
Anyways. I’d pretty much decided, even before leaving home, that I probably wouldn’t talk to anyone, and I probably would hate my roommate. It’s just how fate works, I figured. Just go to class, do your homework, and get on the computers for the remainder of your time I told myself. Oh, and eat. Don’t forget to eat.
To my great surprise, however, my predispositions turned out to be false. Of course, my first impression of my roommate, Paige, was that she was a jock and she brought a heckuvalot of food. Our room was covered in it. But I knew I was going to like her when we were reading quietly that first night and could hear some girl down the hall yacking about something loud and annoyingly. “That’s gonna get old” she remarked.
After that, I couldn’t have been more grateful for having her as a roommate. She was outgoing enough to force me to be involved and actually start branching out on my own. She gave me a person to turn to in for those admittedly long, boyless two weeks. When we were feeling male deprived, we would call our male friends, ask them sex questions, and giggle. We were sophomores. Give us a break. Interesting fact: her best friend, the boy she often called on those particularly estrogen-drowned days, developed a crush on me over Facebook. Two years later, he still considers me an option if our paths were ever to cross. (Doubtful. I live in Colorado, he lives in Virgina. Also, I don’t really have the heart to tell him that it wouldn’t work out anyways. But since we’ll never meet, I don’t worry about it too much)
I don’t know how I would have survived Hollinssummer without Paige there. She was just what I needed to help me adapt to life away from my comfort zones, and I’ll always be grateful of that influence.
