Breakfast with Amber

August 2022: No More Amber

Well, guys, we've made it. I'm in my senior year of college. I'm still with the Swashbucklers, and Amber is no longer my roommate. As much as I would have liked to room with her again, she was moving off-campus to live with her friend. That meant my roommate assignment would once again be at the mercy of the Swashies. This time, I'd be staying in Myrtle 304 with someone named Raye...I forgot her last name. I think it started with an N. Or an O. Oh, God. I can't remember.

Can I be 100% real with you about the dangers of making assumptions? So when I got that initial e-mail from the Swashbucklers with my roommate assignment, I thought Raye was some alternate spelling of "Ray" or "Rae" or whatever parents are naming their daughters these days, and I thought she was going to be from the Deep South where really uncommon spellings of Ray are common, I guess. We pulled up to Myrtle Residence Hall for one last year and began unloading the car and carrying bins of stuff all the way to the third floor. There was only one person standing in the hallway, a short, skinny girl wearing a hijab and a silky dress. We approached my room and found it was the same room she was standing in front of.

As it turns out, it's pronounced "Ra-ye," and she's originally from Turkey. Never assume, kids.

Anyway, the reason she was standing outside and therefore why my parents and I were standing outside is because neither of our room cards worked. She had already texted our RA whose name also escapes me. (Was it Brittany? Brianna?) I texted her as well, and then we waited. It was move-in day, so she was busy, but eventually, she let us in.

That card reader turned out to be a heel for the rest of the semester. At least once a month, it would just refuse to let me in unless I swiped my card 15 times, and it always seemed to be on a Sunday when the Tiger Card office was closed. On one Monday in December, I finally got someone from the Tiger Card office to fix it, and he gave me his number in case it started acting up again. Thankfully, I needed it.

Back to August, we were both in the room and ready to unpack. I called dibs on the bed by the window since I was so used to sleeping there after junior year. We were about half an hour into unpacking when the lights went out.

I could have killed someone right then and there, but I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of my new roommate. Somehow, I had forgotten about the motion-activated lights, but in that moment, all of that rage I had hidden away after sophomore year came back. The rooms on the second floor had regular lightswitches. Why not the first and third? I made my way back to the lightswitch, and as Raye asked what was going on, I said, "It's alright. The lights do this sometimes" while resisting the urge to swear.

Raye was actually a good roommate. We didn't talk, like, at all, considering I don't even remember her last name, but you know what, that's what I like. All I knew was that she was a junior and a neuroscience major. She and I also had pretty much the exact same sleep schedule, so I never had to worry about her keeping me awake at night or about me waking her up in the morning. I still wore headphones whenever I did anything with sound out of courtesy. At least, I think I did because I remember Saturday nights were when I'd have D&D, and she'd video chat with the folks back home, and I could hear her loud and clear talking in Turkish. (I assume she was speaking Turkish. Google Translate tells me Turkish is a real language, so let's go with that.) Maybe the headphones in question were the world's worst earbuds with rubber tips that don't stay on so they don't really block any sound.

On our first morning together, I woke up second, and the lights were still off. I look towards the lightswitch and see that Raye is already awake with her prayer mat out praying towards Mecca. The quickest path towards the lightswitch was to walk in front of her. I was worried that walking in front of someone while they were praying was inappropriate because I would be blocking her direct connection to Mecca or something, but I really did want the lights on, so I tiptoed in front of her and turned on the lights. She didn't seem to notice or mind the lights, so I'm good. I hope I'm good.