This weekend I moved out of my room in Melcher Hall. I only had two hours to move out, and I realized while driving away from campus that I didn’t properly say goodbye.
On move-in day, it took five people to bring all of my belongings in and place them perfectly. It didn’t look lived in yet, and it was a sight out of a magazine. My parents went to leave, and I didn’t cry because I was still excited about completing the first night of my college experience with my new room and roommate at an actual college. It didn’t seem possible at the time.
Within the first night, a tornado warning had all residents crammed into the basement waiting for the storm to pass. It turned out to be a great way to meet people that lived in the building. The weekend went on with a lot of new faces that eventually became familiar faces.
Weeks went on, and finally the newness of the college experience began to wear off. I remember curling up in my bed one night after a phone call from my parents. I had been really homesick, but my friends forced me into a movie night, and I began to feel at “home away from home.” The semester went on, and I even broke out of my comfort zone to participate with my hall in homecoming activities.
I was really sad spending a month at home during winter break and being away from campus. I moved back in as soon as I could. My room felt pretty lonely since my roommate from fall semester had dropped out. I asked my friend Miranda to move in. Between the two of us, we watched a lot of “SVU” and “Chopped”, as well as downed many pints of ice-cream from Greenwood Avenue Market (GWAM). We spent a lot of nights working on quizlets, struggling through homework and dying my hair. Miranda and I made many fun memories in Melcher.
I spent a lot of nights struggling as well. Between math and chemistry, those grey walls closed in on me. I was able to find help at the front desk. Resident assistants do more than just check out vacuums and go on rounds. I met Noah, and for the rest of spring semester he got me through math; he also turned out to be one of “my people”.
My people, well my person: that is a term from the hit show “Grey’s Anatomy”. I would consider my closest friends from Melcher to be the Cristina Yangs to my Meredith Grey. Because of the relationships I formed in Melcher Hall, my people have really made getting through college less lonely, if not easier. Everything becomes easier when you have people cheering you on.
Writing this made me realize it was the people that became my home. That’s a good thing, because I am living with a lot of my people off campus next year, which I expect is a large transition from living on campus.
While I am excited to not have to walk up to my home on the third floor anymore or lug my laundry to the basement and back, there are so many good memories in that room. Like that time Miranda ripped our friend Katherine’s eyebrow off with the waxing kit, or all of the dance parties and competitive Mario Kart races held on our T.V. I will miss waking up to Miranda flying off the top bunk onto our nest of bean bag chairs. I will definitely miss my short walk to GWAM. I think I will even miss Hall Involvement, which three semesters ago you wouldn’t have caught me saying.
Goodbye Melcher Hall, Room 319. The two years have been real.