I had made a decision and now all I had to do was wait...The rest of my Senior year in high school flew by and before I knew it I was wearing a mortar board on my head and had diploma in hand. Tears where shed and promises of not loosing touch were whispered. Pictures were taken and parties were attended. We were no longer "high schoolers" and the open road streched before us.
The summer between my Senior year in high school and Freshman year in college was pretty uneventful. I spent a lot of time working and even more time with my friends, getting every last bit of time in with them before we all parted ways. But mostly I anticipated. Anticipated getting out of Dunbar, going to the city, living with a roommate and how fun and hard college was going to be.
Mom and I went shopping and bought dorm room
stuff as well as school supplies. I had purchased a double loft from a friend of a friend at Stevens Point who was moving out of the dorms. I painted it in fun colors.
Half way in to the summer we had Freshman orientation. Mom, dad and I made the trip to Point to sign up for classes, tour campus and get information on extracurriculars from all of the campus groups. Little did I know that the attractive Junior I'd met in a basement party when I was a Senior in high school (and lied to regarding my status in college) was the President of a fraturnity and he was manning their booth the day of Freshman orientation. He recognized me and laughed as I passed by with my head hung low and bright red cheeks. According to what I had told him when we met I would be a sophmore- definitely not at Freshman orientation!
About 4 weeks from D-day I received a letter in the mail from the University. It was the contact information for the girl who would be my roommate and our room information. Her name was Carrie and she lived in Oshkosh. Our room was 306 Watson Hall- yes a smoking room. I don't remember who contacted who first but I remember our conversation going really well which made me all the more excited to go.
Everything was packed and ready to go. I was going to be driving my truck- packed to the gills and mom would ride with dad in their truck which had the fouton and double loft. The night before move in day my friends took me out to party one last time together. Needless to say I was in no shape to drive the next morning and was pretty under the weather moving all of my belongings to the 3rd floor. When we arrived Carrie was already there and had most of her things put away. Dad was going to put together the loft frame as mom and I were hauling boxes. 2nd trip up, dad informs us that he has left all of the connectors (nuts & bolts) in a bag on his workbench in Dunbar. He would need to run to Menards before we could put the loft together and move the rest of my stuff in. After a lot of cussing, dinner and a -whole-nother day the loft was put together, the fouton was in, all of my stuff was put away and mom and dad, with tears in their eyes, were on their way home. It was just me and the new roommate... and she seemed different from me in a lot of ways. I wondered if I was ready for what the big city was like and secretly missed quiet little Dunbar. I only hoped that we'd get along...
