Last weekend we helped move my sister out of Judson. She's done with school for the year, lucky girl! The same day we moved her was the day of graduation. Excited seniors, caps and gowns in tow, were scurrying around the Volkman lawn, heading toward the ceremony. I remember that day, when it was my turn to be a graduate. I remember not really caring about the ceremony or that my cap made my curly hair stick out like Bozo the clown (I ended up just pulling it back, opting for the bald look instead of the disturbing clown look). Anyways, what I really remember feeling was sadness. The end; a feeling of being cut off too soon. Sure the future was bright, but what I wanted was the past, and I wanted it only with three other girls, my roommates. I wanted more time in our tiny apartment; Volkman 212.
I found the following writing in one of my journals from my senior year of college It's so fitting for this time of year, this graduation season. So Britt, Les, and Amy.........I miss living with you girls like crazy and I miss us all together! So here's to you, brown bag apple pie, Grey's, the legacy of our quote book (I wish I had it here to choose one), and to a promise of reuniting soon. Love you girls!!
Volkman 212
We have a coat rack in our room and right now I’m looking around and seeing three coats tossed over the arms of the couch. We have a shoe bin and still there are countless pairs of shoes and boots lying around, ready to trip their next unsuspecting victim. We have plenty of bookshelves yet there is a mini library cluttering up the tabletop, desks, the TV stand - anything with a flat surface. I could go on. The mess is everywhere - dirty clothes and towels on the floor, used dishes left sitting in every room, hair dryers and curling irons left plugged in and sitting on the stove top. Who knew an oven could double as a vanity?
I guess my roommates and I have trouble putting things in their correct places. It doesn’t sound like it, but it’s a challenge to put things back where they came from. It gets overwhelming sometimes living in a mess. We try to be neat, we do pick up, but the next day things get used again and it ends up looking the same - cluttered and messy. The truth is I really don’t mind all that much. We don’t focus on the mess. It’s actually almost comfortable; it’s lived in. It’s me and my very best friends and we’re not perfect, or neat, or even reasonable at times, but we’re here; this is our room.
If you want to come and visit we’ll welcome you in. You’d probably be grossed out by the messiness, but you’d soon forget about it. You’d probably be laughing because we are funny! Darn funny actually. We laugh a lot, we also get mad, and yell, and cry sometimes but we are all always here. We know each other inside and out. We can tell what someone else is thinking just by looking at her. We are mind readers. We finish each other’s sentences, we say the same thing at exactly the same time and then play an immature version of jinx. We live together and our messes come with us. And it’s okay. It’s good. It’s how we do it.
A place for everything and everything in its place? I don’t think so. That’s not how life is and that’s not how we are. Remember it’s hard to put things back where they came from. I don’t know what we’re going to do when each of us has to go back where we came from.
