Just remembering.
I posted this in a reply to ladyjaida's entry on the subject, but I wanted to share it with you too. Comment with your stories if you like, or ignore it completely. I'll understand either way.
I was in my first year of college after graduating from high school a year early. I had just turned 17. It was the first time I'd been away from home, and I felt so displaced because I didn't really have a home anymore. My family had just moved from Virginia Beach to Kansas City a month earlier, and then I was trundled off to western Massachussetts. Like most first years, I felt awkward but hopeful and somehow able to fake enough confidence to get older students to like me.
I had an early class that morning, which I went to like a good little bunny. I decided to go back to my room before my next class, and as I was walking back, I fell in step with a sophomore who lived down the hall. Melissa was really cool. Always positive, she reminded me vaguely of most of the Filipina girls I was friends with in high school, even though she was Chinese. She was one of those instantly likable people who made you feel welcomed. As we walked up the hill, we exchanged the normal pleasantries for college kids. "Where are you from?" Virginia Beach/New York City, "how do you like it here?" it's nice/yeah, "it's so different from home, but you get used to it."
We parted way at my door, and I started to get settled in for a bit of a computer session. It must have been after 10 by then, and suddenly there was frantic knocking at my door. I answered it, and Melissa was there asking to use my TV. Then she started babbling the most incomprehensible nonsense. The sentences were perfectly constructed, the words all in English, but I couldn't understand. Everytime she repeated the story, a new detail became clear to me. Her boyfriend had IMed her. Some one had flown planes into the World Trade Center. She couldn't get through to her family. I wanted to laugh, but I turned on the TV instead. Then I wanted to laugh even more.
I couldn't help it. It was the most inappropriate thing on the earth. I felt awful, and I had to keep covering my mouth. I left my door open all morning and put out tissues for people. Half the floor passed through my room. My roommate and I caled our families. And I had to keep covering my mouth.
I was in my first year of college after graduating from high school a year early. I had just turned 17. It was the first time I'd been away from home, and I felt so displaced because I didn't really have a home anymore. My family had just moved from Virginia Beach to Kansas City a month earlier, and then I was trundled off to western Massachussetts. Like most first years, I felt awkward but hopeful and somehow able to fake enough confidence to get older students to like me.
I had an early class that morning, which I went to like a good little bunny. I decided to go back to my room before my next class, and as I was walking back, I fell in step with a sophomore who lived down the hall. Melissa was really cool. Always positive, she reminded me vaguely of most of the Filipina girls I was friends with in high school, even though she was Chinese. She was one of those instantly likable people who made you feel welcomed. As we walked up the hill, we exchanged the normal pleasantries for college kids. "Where are you from?" Virginia Beach/New York City, "how do you like it here?" it's nice/yeah, "it's so different from home, but you get used to it."
We parted way at my door, and I started to get settled in for a bit of a computer session. It must have been after 10 by then, and suddenly there was frantic knocking at my door. I answered it, and Melissa was there asking to use my TV. Then she started babbling the most incomprehensible nonsense. The sentences were perfectly constructed, the words all in English, but I couldn't understand. Everytime she repeated the story, a new detail became clear to me. Her boyfriend had IMed her. Some one had flown planes into the World Trade Center. She couldn't get through to her family. I wanted to laugh, but I turned on the TV instead. Then I wanted to laugh even more.
I couldn't help it. It was the most inappropriate thing on the earth. I felt awful, and I had to keep covering my mouth. I left my door open all morning and put out tissues for people. Half the floor passed through my room. My roommate and I caled our families. And I had to keep covering my mouth.