How it all Started

FIRST ENTRY

90% of my college experience is spent with the boys of Suite 3049 South. 3 South for short. That’s only a rough estimate. Some people might say I have no life or that I need to get out more. To that I respond that they should get in more; I have 18 boys who are full of life. This is our story.

The first day at YSU was pretty decent. I had moved in the night before and got up early Saturday morning to go to the freshman scholars mixer. Fortunately for the 40 zoning students, it ended early. Name games can only hold one’s attention for so long. That day was not the fateful day that brought me to my honorary residency at 3 South, but it laid the foundations.

Any freshman who actually cares about school is naturally going to be fairly gung-ho to get her books. I’m very much the stereotype in that scenario. In fact I practically created it. I’m always up for getting new books, even vastly overpriced books that I’ll almost certainly be returning after 3 months anyway. So, with my book voucher in hand I set off with my beloved roommate Sarah Waldinger.

A quick aside: Now technically the ‘g’ in Sarah’s name is pronounced as a ‘g’ as in the word ginger. (More on ginger later.) Of course, you probably read the ‘g’ like the way you’d say a ‘g’ in singer or wing or well…dinger. That’s how I thought it was at first too, but I was soon corrected. And, despite my disappointment, I was totally prepared to say her name properly. My boys clearly had other plans. Needless to say, she’s given up on correcting us on how to properly pronounce her name.

Back to day one! Some of the scholar boys had made the voyage to the bookstore and were searching out their spoils when we got there. You learn very quickly in college that no location is too random or inconvenient for a conversation. So right smack dab in the middle of the isles we had a long discussion about our classes. Or at least that’s how it started. I don’t remember at all what we talked about that whole time, but it’s just one of those things where the important part is that it happened. We began bonding. Eventually, being the assertive person I am, I convinced everyone to at least move to a place where we could sit down. So it was off to the chairs in the merchandise section of the store.

I think overall that conversation lasted about 3 hours. Maybe less, but it’s whatever. The most important point about that conversation is that we discovered a common love between all of us. Ultimate Frisbee. I’m going to go right ahead and say that Ultimate Frisbee is the great equalizer. People will try and tell you the great equalizer is the atom bomb or education or the revolver. No no. It’s Ultimate Frisbee. Think about it. Everyone is welcome. Teams are split up. If you’re good you get passed to, if you’re bad, you guard. But we’re all together and for a couple of hours in time judgments about race or personality are overlooked to play the game. The great equalizer.

I love playing Ultimate with a new group for the first time. I’m good, and nobody I know would ever deny that. At home, in Minnesota, I get picked fairly early, and here it is the same. But that first day, I was untested. We all were. I won’t pretend to be humble. I’m athletic and extremely competitive. This was a chance to awe and amaze. I did. One of the guys, Evan (you’ve kind of already met him), called me a beast. That was the best game I’d had in a long time.

All things considered Saturday was a very eventful day, because that night I would be found in my future squatter location. Today, however, it was just a place to play mafia. A couple of the RAs had set up a game of mafia for the freshman scholars and I participated. It was a fun time. That’s all I remember. I can assure you that I am almost never a mafia member, and I prefer it that way. Sneakiness is not exactly one of my strong points. Game over, day over. I went to sleep I suppose.

Now for day 2. This is where the fun begins.

I don’t know what I did in the afternoon. I don’t care. We had convocation at 3:00 p.m. Boring. Back at the dorm I really wanted to hang out with people. What else was there to do? We didn’t have homework or campus activities. All we had was each other at this point. But no, not in the girls suite. They’ve changed a lot, but that first week they stuck to their rooms like hermit leeches.

I was bored out of my mind. I did everything to get people to come hang out and tried to entertain myself. I even laid on the floor in the hallway at one point to try and attract enough attention to be entertained. No dice. So finally I mustered up my courage and ventured over to the guys’ suite. LO AND BEHOLD THEY WERE BEING SOCIAL!!!! Albeit it was the geekiest sociality I could’ve hoped for, but beggars can’t be choosers. I found them surrounding a Risk board. That’s what did it; the rest of that day. I spent 2 hours playing risk. We went to dinner together, and after dinner I went to go pick up the sweatshirt I’d forgotten and ended up staying.

One little taste of life in 3 South wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to be a part of that taste. So that when people talked about three south they’d recall my voice mingled with 18 boys’. They’d think about biting in the first time and feeling the gush of bubbly laughter burst into color around the taste of smelly bathrooms and sexual innuendos.

I’m the girl spice added to a giant bowl of boy soup. I love it. I’ve thought about what it would be like if I had stuck it out with the girls and decided that I’m glad things panned out the way they did. I love the girls now too, but my guys are my guys. I’m hooked.

So every day I finish classes and maybe spend some time in my room or chat a little with the girls in our common room, but inevitably I collect my things and mosey on over to 3 South. In general, every day is the same. And yet there are little differences to each moment I spend here. The difference from one day to the next of what I walk in on. The days when something new has found its way into the suite and made itself a novelty. The similarities are what marinate from day to day and saturate our lives with a familiar taste. The surprises; the beach balls; the holidays and special occasions; those are the things that spice life and keep us from settling in so much that life becomes bland and tasteless from familiarity.

Now you know how I got here. If you’re intrigued, watch the story unfold. I’ll be here whether you join me or not.