Dorm life builds great friendships The first thing that all students have in common is moving into their new home - their dorm room. This is the place where they must cram everything that they need in order to survive. It is sometimes quite an ordeal to get settled. Belongings have to be put in the places they are going to stay for at lea t a school year. "Will it all fit?" is often heard in the girls' dorms. Once the "moving in" trauma has ended, another one is ready to take its place - the roommate. This is the person the resident will be sharing his or her intimate space with for the year. "Will it work? Will they be someone I can get along with or will they steal my stuffwhen I'm not looking?" These fears are generally put to rest as the two new friends get to know each other and find that they have a lot in common. Having established a new residence and befriended the new "roomie," there are suitemates, hall mates, and dorm mates to meet. They become friends through latenight room gatherings and informal parties that are held at all hours ofthe night. Many fond memories are the result ofnights when people tayed up way too long. Junior Scott Loftis said, "Four or five of u stay up until all hours of the night, ometimes doing homework, but most of the time just having fun and unwinding. Those are my favorite dorm memories." Jon Carroll works at his computer in Graduate Hall . tudents spent agreat deal oftime surfing the Internet. Photo by Jeff Fall. 30 Dorm Life Other fond memories are ofpranks that have been played in the dorms. One senior told ofa night when her roommate wouldn't get offthe phone with her boyfriend. As she talked to him from the closet, the prankster used a lamp chord to tie the closet shut so her phone-friendly roommate could not exit. This proved to be effective, as the prisoner had to get offthe phone in order to negotiate her way out of the closet. Another fond memory involved a prank played on an entire freshmen girls' dorm. Two roommates traveled around the dorm and wrote messages on every door that instructed the residents to put their chairs out in the hall by noon the next day. The notes explained that the chairs were all going to be cleaned. The messages were signed with the name of the dorm's janitor, which apparently made the note believable to most of the girls. The next day, halls were lined with chairs, all ready to be cleaned. It proved to be a hilarious sight for the two who planned the prank, especially since they didn't think that anyone was going to take their notes seriously. No matter what dorm a student lived in or with whom they lived, it seemed impossible to leave Harding without fond memories of dorm life. - Christina Weber
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