Wish You Were Here

An Ode to the Roommate

In college, everyone has a different living situation – and plenty of different stories to tell about it. And mine has definitely been unique in an interesting way: I’ve had four different roommates, one for each year of school here.

The first thing to talk about is just how you get a roommate in the first place. The housing questionnaire asks you a bunch of questions to filter you in the right dorm situation for you. First, they’ll ask your preference of building and if you would want a single, double, or triple room. (Insider’s tip: perks of a single include privacy; perks of a double include an instant friend to tackle orientation with; perks of a triple include a cheaper room and board fee.) Second, they ask lifestyle questions, like what you normally use your room for (studying, socializing), how you like to listen to music, when you usually go to bed/wake up, if you would prefer substance-free housing, how often you tidy up the place, etc. Except if you’re on a sports team and your coach wants your teammates to live together, these are the details that Hopkins uses to match you with a roommate.

My corner of Wolman 504B, freshman year!

Third, there is a section of the form that asks if you would like to request a roommate. As long as both people choose each other mutually, you’ll get that roommate and will already be set coming into school. At that point, I started to worry a little: did people do that? Am I going to be the only one being matched up with some rando? And after four years working with Hopkins Interactive, I’ve found that this is an extremely common question for a lot of people, not just with me. (Some people even try to recruit roommates via the enrolled students Facebook group because the thought of being randomly assigned stresses them out.) Luckily, it turns out that people rarely request a friend/family member to live with. I got mine just like nearly everyone else did: in a random draw, based on a few key habits. So, just as some preliminary advice: RELAX! The housing office has been matching people for years and, with a few dramatic exceptions, it all works out in the end. I promise.

And that leads me to my first day on campus, when I met my very first roommate.

Me and Kathleen!

To my freshman year roommate: You were the first person I have ever had to share a room with…and, if I’m being honest with myself, it probably showed. I know when I came to college I was a little uptight, a little moody, and definitely homesick. And by the end of the year, your ringtone, your morning crunchy apple snacks, your texting away on your cell  phone (click click click click click) got on my very last nerve. But it was the natural response to being cooped up in a ~180 square-foot room with another person I barely knew and now, three years later, I can’t help but realize that my first random roommate experience was actually really positive. I remember the good stuff, like going out to the Den and ending up at Uni Mini together, studying late into the night for our ridiculous Fluid Earth final, and roasting marshmallows on our electric stovetop. I took things too seriously at the beginning of freshman year, and I thank you for helping to loosen me up. Thank you for asking me to go out even when I didn’t feel like it. Thank you for teaching me patience, tact, and respect. And thanks for being a reminder of a year in which I grew more than I ever thought was possible: freshman year was a turning point in so many ways and you, freshman year roomie, were a big part of that.

My wall in Charles Commons during sophomore year.

To my sophomore year roommate: Jessica, Jessica, Jessica. How lucky I was that we were both looking for a roommate at the same time freshman spring. How lucky, again, that both of our previous housing plans had fallen through and that we could come together to go through the housing lottery together. How lucky I was, still, that we got a lottery number in the 70′s and had the pick of virtually any room/building we wanted! Our suite was epic and I thank you for that – the fantastic top-floor view of the Inner Harbor, doing homework at our dining room table, and cooking side-by-side at our kitchenette were all made better because I had an excellent roommate to share them with. It’s hard to believe we lived together two whole years ago – I have no idea where the time has gone! But it has been a pleasure to see the adventures you’ve gone through in the meantime, from working and studying abroad, to becoming leader of the Public Health Student Forum, to earning an impressive post-graduation job in Vietnam. We throw this compliment around between each other a lot, but I sincerely wouldn’t mind being you when I grow up. You’ve got it all: drive, passion, intelligence, tolerance. Now I’m just glad, if I’m not still your roommate, that you remain an amazing and loyal friend.

Me and Jessica, Roommate 2.

Me and Jill!

To my junior year roommate: In April 2009, with Jessica going abroad and planning to graduate a semester early, I was desperate for an apartment. I had no idea who I would live with, what building would be home, or even what area of campus to look in for these things. And then I got an email from a friend who was moving to her own little apartment and needed someone to take her bedroom at her old abode. That was when I met you – you, a strong and silly ROTC almost-senior who I had never met before, showed me around the place and humored me as I fell in love with my massive, my gorgeous current apartment. And although we weren’t “friends” going into August, you were there for everything – to help me through a rocky start to junior year, to help plan my birthday party, to chat and have dinner and have fun and everything in between. It was an effortless friendship and roommateship, which continues to make me optimistic about possibly having to live with a stranger next year. Even when I got busier spring semester, I feel like we didn’t lose touch. It was a comfort to know I had a safe, happy place (and roommate) to come home to every day. For that, I thank you.

To my senior year roommate: To the only person who has ever written me a love letter (that nonsense is still up on my memo board), to the person who always took out the trash, to the person who taught me how to use dishwasher detergent, to the person who took showers insanely early (and motivated me to get up), to the person whose loud giggles I can hear all the way across the apartment…I can’t say much more than thank you for making my senior year easy, fun, and full of laughter. I can leave you with some obvious advice too, if you want it: you only have one year of college left, so you better make it count. You’re beautiful, smart, and I know you will do something outstanding in life with all that charisma and knowledge (I know, I’ve taught you everything I know). I’m going to miss your insults and the presents you left in my room, like that Easter basket that got me through some rough nights of paper-writing. I’ll miss Degrassi and That 70′s Show always being on television when you’re in the living room (or Sex and the City, in the rare event that neither of the former are on). I’ll miss complaining with you about our grouchy downstairs neighbor, and about our building’s office manager, and about the bazillion campus organizations you’re involved in. I’ll miss it all – this year was a great year, and that was due in no small part to having a kick-ass roommate to share the experience with.

Typical me and Maxi

Now, after four years and four roommates, I look forward to graduating and moving off somewhere new to (probably) my first non-Baltimore roommate. I don’t know what they’ll be like, if we’ll get along, or how our apartment will look, but I do know that I am much better equipped to handle it than I ever have been before. I’ve learned a lot of things in college, but one of the most useful was learning how to live with people: how to be tolerant of their quirks, deal with problems diplomatically, and still keep my own sense of self along the way. In fact, I’ve also learned that I personally live better with people, which is a remarkable discovery to make as an only child.

A roommate’s hug, when you’re having a rough day (or week or month), is priceless. Living with a roommate, I find myself thriving off their energy and being motivated by their choices in a way I could never have been if I lived alone. I feel a connection with the world too – a roommate, who is involved in different things, has different interests, and most of all has different friends, can broaden your horizons in so many different ways. I credit each of these four ladies for teaching me this and so much more about life and about myself. I wish them all the best in whatever they do – and I’m grateful that, for one year each, I could have had a small part in lives that are going to take this world by storm.

Spring Fever

Me and Ashlee at this year's Spring Fair.

Hot off the heels of an amazing weekend, I’ve just realized that I have never ever written in this blog about Spring Fair. I can’t imagine how that could have ever happened: it’s one of my favorite weekends of the entire year, and definitely my favorite Hopkins-sponsored event on campus. To be fair, spring at Hopkins is a whirlwind of fun events, including Homecoming, Maryland Film Festival (where I’m volunteering this year), and Senior Week. It’s exciting because there’s so much to do – schoolwork is definitely put on the back-burner because of all the fun to be had. But there really is none better than Spring Fair.

And me and Ashlee at my first Spring Fair ever in 2008!

Spring Fair is a magical three days when the entire Homewood campus loosens up, takes a deep breath, and gets outside to make some truly amazing memories. On Thursday night, there is a big kickoff party at Levering Plaza that includes fireworks, food, a mechanical bull, and a beer garden on the Latrobe Hall patio. There’s music provided by the WJHU radio station DJs and everyone tends to stay for a really long time, celebrating the weekend. Afterwards, it has become a tradition that I go to Sig Ep to hang out with my friends late into the night. It has also become a tradition that, if possible, I skip the class(es) I have on Friday, get a good night’s sleep, and head to the Freshman Quad on Friday morning ready for some good food, good friends, and good fun.

Spring Fair 2011's theme was dinosaurs! Inflatable dinosaurs were floating around all weekend.

Maxi, me, Naomi and Olivia at Spring Fair 2009

Rest is really necessary because, starting on Friday afternoon, the fair is in full swing. On the Freshman Quad are dozens of food vendors selling ice cream, turkey legs, corn dogs, pad Thai, lemonades and smoothies, cheese fries, fried Oreos, funnel cakes, and all the rest of the essential carnival foods you can think of. The Upper Quad is home to arts and crafts vendors selling jewelry, clothes, candles, paintings, soaps, homemade blown glass, and more. We also packed a lot of children’s events on the Upper Quad, like a moonbounce, a magician’s show, face-painting, and balloon animals. This year, the Lower Quad housed the non-profit section, which is usually full of student groups raising money for their various charities and efforts. Levering Plaza hosted concerts all weekend and, finally, the President’s Lawn was the location of our annual Beer Garden.

Film Society Does the Beer Garden: Alexandra and me (with Diana in the background) this year!

I really like that we have shopping, food, and games for adults/kids as well: it’s not just a college student event (though it would certainly be fun enough if it was), but really an event that brings together the Baltimore community as a whole. We even have a petting zoo that comes one day that, funnily enough, interests us just as much as it interests the kids. It’s also a huge alumni draw, since some graduates come back more often for Spring Fair than they even do for Young Alumni Weekend in the fall or Homecoming in the spring. It’s just nice to watch campus buzz with a different kind of energy for a few days. You forget about work, forget about upcoming exams, even forget about graduation coming so soon. Instead, you smile, laugh, squint in the sun, spend too much money on food, take too many pictures, and love every single moment of it all.

Crabby Family reunion at Spring Fair 2011!

Watching Chiddy Bang from Latrobe Hall with Quin.

And what’s not to love about it: aside from the food, the fireworks, the beer, and the shopping, there are also always concerts and other special events throughout the fair. This year, we welcomed Chiddy Bang and had a “Blackout Party” (think: rave) in the Rec Center on Friday night. Saturday, the Coalition of Hopkins Activists for Israel (including my friend Aliza, who works in Admissions too) organized the Falafel Ball, a charity function with DJs, a capella, food, and dancing. Sunday morning was the Blue Jay 5k run, then a smorgasbord of Baltimore-based bands played in the afternoon including Future Islands, Dope Body, and Weekends.

Me and a bunch of seniors at Spring Fair 2010.

As great as all of that is, it’s really funny how the highlights of Spring Fair are never those things you originally were the most excited to experience. Even though it rained nearly all day Saturday and the food/beer garden actually shut down by mid-afternoon, I’m going to look back on Spring Fair 2011 – my last as an undergraduate – and remember nothing but an exciting, unpredictable, really satisfying time. Even as a senior with one month left at Hopkins, I met so many new people. I danced. I spent lots of time in the sun, wore pretty maxi dresses, and got a pretty decent tan. I got to dye my roommate Maxi’s hair purple and blue to help raise money for Cuts for Camp. I had a corn dog, cheese fries, pad thai, crepes, lemonade, and (lots of) hard cider. I played Dirty Minds until 4 in the morning with some of my closest friends. Honest to goodness, at some points I laughed until I cried. And it sounds silly, but I hugged a lot this weekend – it’s that energy beating through campus, that makes everyone happier and more appreciative of everything around them. Every once in a while, we all need weekends like that.

And now, with Spring Fair 2011 finished and the vendors all packed up, all I want is to be able to do it all over again. Without fail, Spring Fair makes it even more apparent how much I love my friends and how much I love this school. I had such a blast.

The cutest little kid in a dinosaur costume, running around the patio behind the library.

the writing center

Out of my group of friends, I’d probably win the award for Most Likely to Have to Go to Work. I mostly do it because I need the money – to eat, pay rent, shop, and enjoy Baltimore to its fullest. But I also actually, genuinely love what I do. I work about an average of 20 hours each week, split between the Admissions office, Girls Life Magazine (as a remote website monitor), and the JHU Writing Center. And, since the only one of these I’ve really never addressed is the Writing Center, I figured I would do that now.

WHAT?

The Writing Center is located in the Hutzler Reading Room of Gilman Hall, one of the major study spots on campus (and my absolute favorite). The purpose of the Writing Center is to offer students free, individual conferences with tutors trained to consult on “argument-based academic writing assignments.” That basically includes your standard papers, essays, reports, even personal statements and proposals. We don’t discriminate against departments: we take English papers just as seriously as we do Philosophy, History, Anthropology, even most science reports (though we don’t do lab reports). The only thing we strictly don’t cover is creative writing, like fiction or poetry.

The Hut. The Writing Center is located to the right of this picture!

WHO?

I’ve been a tutor since fall of my junior year. The tutors at the Writing Center are mostly graduate students with some of us undergraduates mixed in. In order to be considered for the job of undergraduate tutor, you have to be nominated by a professor and go through an application/interview process. If you’re selected, you then are trained in a semester-long 1-credit course about effective tutoring strategies in all sorts of scenarios. And you can trust us: we had to complete an extensive series of observations, tandem tutor sessions, and evaluations before we were approved to take the reins on our own.

The Writing Center is open to all undergraduates and graduate students in both the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering.

HOW?

Each session is 50 minutes long and we’re open from Sundays-Thursdays 2pm-10pm. That means you have plenty of opportunities to make an appointment! We’ll start by asking you about the essay prompt, then about your approach to the assignment. Then, we’ll spend about 20 minutes actually reading what you’ve brought (if it’s really long, we’ll stick to the first/most crucial 8-10 pages). After that, we’ll offer our suggestions and ask if you have any questions. And we cover it all: thematic, grammatical, structural, stylistic concerns and everything in between.

WHY?

If you’re using the Writing Center, it’s important to remember that we aren’t editors: we’re not there to correct your entire paper and send you on your way. Instead, as our current director has said, we’re in the business of making better writers. The specific paper at hand is important, but the best session will include examples of revisions that the student can take away and apply on their own in the future.

—

I absolutely love working at the Writing Center. Balancing the three jobs and classwork is tough at times, but writing has always been my strongest academic skill. We get a lot of looks of sheer panic when appointments start (especially when the paper is due tomorrow), but it feels excellent to be able to use my ability to help my peers calm down, look at their words more carefully, and learn how to better approach writing. It’s the greatest success when they realize writing isn’t something to dread – or, at the very least, it’s something they can control. And that’s when I know I’ve done my job well.

the time of my life

For the last couple of weeks, all of the Hopkins Interactive bloggers have been writing on a common theme:  our thoughts and reflections on the college application process.  We’ve all been exactly where you are now and hope that sharing our experiences will help you through this momentous (but challenging!) time in your life. This post is part 2 of 2 I’ll be writing on the topic. (Read part 1 here.)

I was going to write another entry with advice to all of you who are approaching that intimidating college application deadline – something useful to remember when asking for recommendations, what to look for on college visits, tips to finish up (or start, if you procrastinate like I do) that application essay. But when I sat down to write it…I realized that I had no idea what to say because, somehow, I have become very, very old.

Class of 2007!

It’s been a long time since I’ve been in high school, or since I applied to college, or even since I set foot on the Hopkins campus for my first day of freshman year. I’ve come a long way from the high school senior who got lost trying to show her parents the Rec Center the day after her overnight stay. I’m a college senior now – and I know Hopkins so well that I can walk blindly around campus from class to work to lunch to meetings, so preoccupied with other things that I let my subconscious senses take over. I don’t get lost and I don’t go off-track. It’s just like my body knows where I’m going, after being here for so long.

Fall 2006

During the summer before my first year here, I had a hard time reminding myself I would actually have to go off to college at some point. I was nervous for the work, nervous to be in a city where I knew no one…but for some reason, my imagination always put me sleeping in my familiar bed at home, studying at my familiar dining room table, eating meals at my familiar restaurants around my hometown. It was only the middle of August when I realized these things would be entirely new – entirely replaced – when I came to school. And when I got to campus my freshman year, I really resented the older students who called Hopkins their “home.” They’d talk about how, when they went to their actual homes to visit their families, they felt like they were out of place because of how comfortable they had gotten at Hopkins. They’d talk about how easy it was to settle in and how they actually missed school when they went on break. I couldn’t imagine it – I was already counting down the days til I could go home, calling my parents and telling them I didn’t think I could make it for four whole years. I told myself “Home Sweet Hopkins” would never happen to me: home was home, and that was that. This was just temporary and wouldn’t ever compete.

Dad, me, and Mom on campus freshman year

And then all sorts of crazy things happened to my freshman self. I decorated my dorm with photos and fake flowers, I joined clubs related to my most passionate interests, I started raising my hand in classes and finding the corners of the Hut where I did my best work (and people-watching). I survived my first failing test grade in college and reveled in my first A+. I made friends – real friends, ones I didn’t feel uneasy around and ones that made me feel amazing about being myself and being here. I had my first college relationship, explored all corners of Baltimore, got my first job. And somehow, between that first emotional day on campus and this cold winter afternoon in the library…Hopkins became my home, too.

home sweet home!

So if you’re anxious about leaving home – or even if you’re just having trouble imagining yourself next year at college – remember that time is an amazing thing. How you feel, think, or behave a month from now is a total mystery. So much can happen and you can learn so much in such short amounts of time. Obviously, to settle in anywhere you have to do some work: social work, academic work, domestic work. You have to make an effort to be comfortable somewhere entirely foreign. But even when you think it’s never going to happen…trust time, and know that it will do its job to push you along to where you need to be.

And really, the fact that I did it is so satisfying. I made a home here for myself, complete with a warm apartment and a family of genuine, good-hearted friends. I didn’t think it would ever happen, and it did. It proved to me that I can make it anywhere. I can be on my own and I can make positive things happen. Looking ahead to the post-graduation chapter of my life isn’t nearly as scary when I remember this. I can do it.

Bests: Ashlee, me, and Courtney

an ode to gilman

I am sitting in the library now, facing the Upper Quad and the beautiful {still fenced, slightly scaffolded, and partly boarded up} Gilman Hall.   There are men – they look itty bitty from where I’m sitting – walking around the roof, nailing things in place and shouting directions to other itty bitty men below.

They’re not just doing it for fun: Gilman Hall is in the process of a major, $73 million renovation.  The plans include a new 3-story, glass-topped central atrium, a new second floor courtyard to connect the Hutzler Reading Room and Memorial Hall, a new home to the archaeological collection on the first floor, a new 140-person film screening room, and more.  Afterwards, it will be the first completely “green” building on campus – which is a feat, considering it’s 92 years old.  If all goes as planned, it should open at the end of the summer this year – and I can’t wait.

The main hallway of Gilman. That's the main front door all the way at the end.

I’ve been having dreams about Gilman for the past month or so.  I know that sounds nerdy of me, but I think it’s enough to explain to you how much of an effect the building has had on me.  Just to put it into perspective: I had my second college class ever in this building.  In this building, I met my favorite professors for the first time, did college-level studying for the first time, took my first college exam… the list goes on.

Gilman from the side, at dusk.

Gilman is where a significant part of my adapting to college took place.  When I was unsure and intimidated by the prospect of surviving a college-level paper or a midterm exam, I went to Gilman to work on it.  I think it has to do with its atmosphere: it felt scholarly.  Walking in those big heavy doors, I felt like I was walking in with hundreds of other Hopkins students {mostly male, considering I wouldn’t have been allowed to come here before 1970} who have done extraordinary things before me.  They were all around me, thinking and doing and creating and trailblazing.  It was inspiring, to walk the same hallways and look out the same windows and {maybe} daydream the same daydreams.  Even now, it makes me smile every time I walk by.  Somehow, Gilman Hall has the power to remind me that I go here, to Johns Hopkins University – and it reminds me, scaffolding and all, how special that fact actually is.

Rumor has it that, if you step on the JHU seal in the foyer of Gilman, you won't graduate!

Come next semester, Gilman Hall will become my own personal heart of Homewood again.  As the Humanities hub on campus, Gilman has always felt like home to me.  My Writing Seminars classes will be here, my Film & Media Studies classes will be here, my required electives {considering I will have finished my distribution requirements by then} will be held here, my completely random I’m-taking-this-because-it-sounded-cool-and-we-might-have-a-field-trip classes will be held here.  I’ll study here, in the new-and-improved Hut {the Hutzler Reading Room}.  I’ll work in this reincarnated building too, in my second semester as a tutor at our Writing Center.  It’ll be so great to finally expand past our small little space in the Greenhouse behind Gilman.

The Hut, one of my favorite places on campus.

After its remodel, I’m hoping it keeps its charm.  I’m hoping that, when I walk through those doors and sit in those desks as I did before, I will still feel with awe towards the generations of people who sat there just like me.  I’m hoping it motivates me academically, like it did two years ago.  The worst possible thing would be for the building to end up completely state-of-the-art and eco-friendly, but sterile and generic.  I know it’s just a building, but it’s too good for that.

spring at hopkins + open houses!

I remember when I found out I was accepted to Hopkins and made the quick decision to enroll, I would spend so much time googling “Johns Hopkins” just to find random pictures of anything even remotely related to the school.  So this post is going to be a sort of picture spam of the gorgeous places all around the Hopkins campus that are blooming with the arrival of springtime .. and some pictures from our Admitted Student Open Houses thrown in as well!  Sorry if some of the pictures came out blurry or washed out — I still haven’t 100% learned how to use my camera yet.  {With an entire summer to practice, by next school year I plan to be an amazing photographer.}

These are all pictures from our Upper Quad, which is bound by Gilman,
Ames, Krieger, Jenkins/Mergenthaler, and Remsen Halls, and the MSE
Library.

Pretty tress behind the AMRs, the Chemistry Building, and Dunning Hall.

Daffodils in front of Fresh Food Cafe and on our Breezeway, near the lower quad.

More pretty trees behind Gilman Hall, behind the Hopkins Club, and by the Bloomberg Center.

Trees and bushes behind Mudd Hall and Mergenthaler Hall.

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