Lauren Keane

MELANIE SCHOENBERG/YH

Mairin and I met thinking the same thing—we had arrived back at Yale around the same time from different FOOT trips, and as far as I could tell neither of us gave a rat's ass which bed we got, or whether our desk was closest to the window. We wanted running water, drinkable water—our first of many shared food cravings, foreshadowing many late-night snack fests together. She kept to herself that first week, and indeed most of the first semester, although her bubbly and engaging personality shone through in short bursts every now and then. It was only after Christmas break that I really started to get to know her, to watch her balance diligence and strong religious faith with a need for mischief and spontaneity. She became the stabilizing force in our room.

While the two of us were on FOOT, Alycia had set herself up the day earlier after a week at Cultural Connections, so her unpacking was done. We soon discovered that we had likely been assigned as roommates because we shared an almost obsessive love for Broadway musicals and for singing in general. It was a good match, since she ended up keeping me musically "in tune" when I didn't have many chances to sing, and her dedication to her music helped me hang on to my own. We were even in the Freshman Chorus and Pirates of Penzance together. We teased each other incessantly, and reminisced about warmer climates and "real" food. Even though she hailed from comfort food central while I was a California vegetarian health nut, we shared a desperate wintertime need for sun and calories.

Sylvia, from that other coast, amazed me throughout the year by the sheer volume of stuff she managed to cram so artfully into our tiny room. I stared in awe every time she arrived with another carful of belongings, but she always managed to find a place for it in her corner of the common room. After a year of experiencing her music tastes, I have a new appreciation for Enrique Iglesias and his Spanish pop idol peers. All four of us now have the theme music to several different Spanish soaps ingrained into our memories, since she watched them religiously. She also kept to herself most of the year, although we had some great late-night conversations and a lot of reminiscing about living in a real city—her in New York, me in San Francisco.

The four of us had our share of tension this year, but for the most part we did really well for four people from such different backgrounds thrown together. Three of us are living together next year, and the fourth is just two rooms away, so we'll stay close.

So go ahead and write those introduction letters with some flair, but know that the people you meet on move-in day probably won't be very much like what you expect from reading them at all.

1. Alycia Scott, By Alycia Scott
2. Lauren Keane
3. Mairin Burke, By Mairin Burke
4. Sylvia Park, By Sylvia Park

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