Thursday, September 02, 2010

Busted! Sleeping in the Girls' Dorm Room

I was going through some old boxes recently and came across my old student ID from MTSU.  As a senior in high school I had a very important decision to make.  I had to choose between going to The University of Tennessee which was only 40 minutes from home and a world-class leader in education... or going to MTSU which was 3 hours away from home but offered me the enjoyment of two of my best girl friends.

HELLO!?


So I obviously went to MTSU.  The only downside to living in my 165 square foot door room was my assigned roommate.  Bubba, as he was called (and I kid you not) was what you don't want in a roommate.  The tallow tuba player (again, kid you not) kept a foot locker near his bed filled with Hostess and Little Debbie snacks... which was more than welcome except that I was forbidden to touch the savory sweets.

Over the course of the first semester I came to understand that Bubba and I were not going to make it.  His love of Speedracer, tuba practice and keeping the A/C at a frigid 40 degrees overnight (which led to several visits to the campus clinic for inflamed lungs) forced a wedge in our could-be friendship until I couldn't take it anymore and moved out at Christmas.

The girls (see above: best girl friends) were rooming together in a dorm across the quad but were looking to get an apartment off campus and we decided that our codependency was working for us and that we should all three move in together.

It would be hard leaving Bubba and his treasure trove behind... but I persevered.

We found an apartment about a mile outside of campus and quickly turned in our rent ($400 total per person for the spring semester in 1993 dollars - $603.49 in 2010 dollars).  The apartment was a dump but it was our first real place as adults and we didn't care.  But that's for another day.  (Stay tuned.)

For now we needed to get all of our stuff out of the dorms and into the apartment so that we could begin our grown up lives.  I stopped into the girls' dorm building and dropped of my student ID at the front desk (that was protocol to ensure that boys didn't stay overnight).

The move went smoothly but I forgot to reclaim my ID from the front desk.  Winter soon passed and the spring semester began... when suddenly I received a letter from the Dean of Students.  I was being put on judicial probation for "sleeping in a girl's dorm room".

I was aghast!  How could anyone think I was sleeping in a girl's dorm room?!  Didn't they know me well enough?  Wasn't it clear from my use of the word "aghast".  I mean, it either means I'm gay or a pirate (or both).  


I mean really... while both of my best friends were beautiful women, neither had the power to convert me to heterosexuality.  Just wasn't going to happen.  I wrote a strongly worded letter to the Dean explaining the misunderstanding and I think I was let off of probation after they saw that I signed my letter with a smiley face. I think.  I'm not sure to this day.  But whatever was done to my permanent record has had no impact on my present situation.  Maybe that little slip even gave me some unintended street cred with the school's administration.  It would explain the thumbs up I would get from unknown men and woman in their mid-50s as I strolled through the University Center.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, I had forgotten about that...until now. I miss you, Tommy!

Love one of your best girlfriends/ college roommates,

Sam :-)

Thomas said...

Miss you too Sam! :)