I find myself talking about my roommates in every information session I give. I live with four other girls in one of the five person Atwater Suites (most house four students but one of my roommates got a great number, 12, in room draw) and we make for a pretty diverse bunch.

At some point in my session I’ll start talking about sports, or the arts, or foreign language study, or Education in Action, and start saying, “One of my roomates…”

• is a coxswain on the crew team
• is a joint English/Theatre major (and another is a joint English/History major)
• is studying Arabic, Chinese, and keeping up with the French she learned in high school
• just got accepted to a doctoral program at William and Mary
• is from Texas (or Maine, Mississippi, or Washington state)
• has worked as an actor/interpreter at colonial Williamsburg
• has worked in the US Embassy in Romania
• has worked harvesting peas on large farms
• knows how to bowhunt

After I get going talking about my closest friends, a lot of the parents and students seem to wonder just how many roommates I have because I rattle off all the different things they do. It’s true that we like to stay busy with our school work and extracurricular activities, but we find plenty of time to get together both for work and for fun. Most afternoons and evenings we’ll settle down in our living room to get going on our homework, occasionally stopping to share something interesting we read or to direct everyone’s attention to the latest Daily Puppy, and on weekends we try to make it to each other’s plays and regattas. Living together this year has been wildly fun and has strengthened our friendship.