Column: First year at MU draws to a close
Published April 23, 2010
It's hard to believe my time in Hatch residence hall is almost over.
My floor in Hatch really helped me adjust to MU at the start of the year. I knew other people here, but it helped to make friends with the people in my vicinity and to spend time talking to them. Although I've made more friends elsewhere on campus since then, I know it really helped to be on a floor with two journalism Freshman Interest Groups and inside a journalism learning committee. As much as students debate the FIG program as good or bad, I've really appreciated it.
A lot of people on my floor are from out of state. I think the mixture of people who don't know many people here was a catalyst to make most of us originally on the floor know each other. The floor got mixed up at semester as people left for various reasons and were in turn replaced. I still talk to most of the people I know who moved off of the floor at semester, though I don't know many of the new kids on the floor as I've been busy.
My floor has done a lot of silly things. We spent most of our floor money last semester on Christmas decorations, so our floor was a winter wonderland between Thanksgiving and winter breaks. We had to take down most of our decorations because somehow holiday spirit tends to be against safety codes, but it was fun nonetheless. For the "mocktails" alcohol education event, our floor had a Harry Potter theme and served "butterbeer," a thick, hot, butterscotch-based concoction we couldn't make fast enough for the people drinking it. I like to think we were a lot more original than the floors that had speakeasies and Catalina wine coolers.
As for a roommate, I haven't been so lucky. My original roommate and I didn't see eye-to-eye on a few issues, and she ended up leaving the room not far into the semester. I didn't get a new roommate until after Thanksgiving break. She and I got along really well, but she just happened to have been going through a terrible year and didn't come back second semester. Her withdrawal papers from the Department of Residential Life got mixed up, so I haven't had a roommate since.
I won't pretend I haven't enjoyed having a double room as a single. There is significantly more space when only one person's stuff is in the room. I enjoy the peace of being in here myself, and I'm able to do what I want in terms of turning on and off the lights. But I'm fairly certain I studied more when I had a roommate, and I know I had a better sleep schedule. It was also really nice to have someone to talk to at any time.
Next year I'll still be in the residence halls, but instead of Hatch I'll be over in College Avenue residence hall in a single suite. My individual room next year is going to be incredibly small in comparison. I'm afraid I've been spoiled this year.
As for my suitemates, I'm very optimistic. I've met two of them so far, and nothing tells me I should have any problems. I've also met another person who is going to be on my floor, an incoming freshman who's friends with my cousin.
As fun as this year has been, I'm definitely looking forward to the next one.