College Crazies

In college I became friends with some very interesting people. Interesting being a very mild adjective with which to describe them. I'm not sure why or how these were the people who ended up in my life. It just kind of happened that way.

First there was Kelly. She seemed very normal. The interesting thing about her was that she was black, but I didn't know it. I'm actually not joking. I thought she was just really tan until I saw pictures of her family and they definitely were all African American. I remember calling my mom and saying, "Did you know that Kelly is black?" and she said, "...umm.. yes." Silly me. Yes, I realize I'm the strange one in this story. To say that I was naive (dumb?) and sheltered back then would be quite the understatement. The reason I mention her, though, is because after Christmas vacation I came back to school and she had taken all of the pictures of the two of us down from her walls. She also stopped speaking to me and made other friends. I have no idea what happened. I never asked either.

There was Yanela. My first college roommate. She was from Panama and never spoke to me. In the beginning I made many attempts at inviting her to do things with my friends and me, but it was very apparent that she wanted nothing to do with me. She moved out without telling me or the school. I knew she was moving out because one day as I sat on the computer, she started packing all of her things in boxes. I'm fairly certain that she left without saying goodbye. The great thing about the way that she left was that by the time the school figured out she was gone it was too late for them to place someone in my room. I had a room to myself for half a year. sweeeet.

Next there was Dan. Everyone assumed he was gay including me, but he denied it. Dan was super fun most of the time... except for the days when he would lock himself up in his room and wouldn't talk or eat. Apparently he was bi-polar and at some point early in my freshman year, he stopped taking his medication and started self-medicating. He transferred to another school nearby for sophomore year. Then he dropped out and started living with a girl somewhere in Virginia. We lost touch, but I did find out a few years down the road that he eventually did come out of the closet.

Fatima. She might possibly have been the craziest person I've ever met. She had two distinct personalities so much so that we gave her alternate a nickname: Faduma. Faduma came around any time Fatima was under the influence which was pretty often. Faduma was known to do things like: pour two bottles of beer on my head, light people's hair on fire, steal nursing mannequins from the nursing department of our school, suddenly not recognize the people she was hanging out with all night at a club, and last but certainly not least.. steal cars. Or, actually, it was only one car. She stole it from her "friend" and parked it in a gas station parking lot as a "joke". However, she never planned on telling her "friend" where it was. If it wasn't for me, that girl might not have ever found her car. Sorry Sarah saves the day! In the end Fatima (or was it Faduma?) failed out of school, owed thousands of dollars in bounced checks to the university (and the local Chinese food restaurant) and was forced by her parents to come live with them in Ethiopia. Fatima was super fun to hang out with, though! I swear! We did keep in touch a little through email. Last I heard, though, she had escaped her parents' clutches and was living in England. Who knows if that's true or what ever became of her. I sure wouldn't mind seeing her again, though. Seeing FATIMA, that is.

There was also Yvonne, who technically wasn't really much of a friend, but she is the girl whose car Faduma stole and she dated one of Mike's best friends for a while, so she was in my life quite a bit. This girl called in a bomb threat to the school so that her bf could get extra time to study for a final he thought he was going to fail. And guess who she confided her dirty deed to? Mwa. Yep. I told my best friend, my best friend told the powers that be, and guess who was back at the university the next year? Yvonne. Apparently, calling in a bomb threat is not enough to get you kicked out of college. Who knew?

There were others... but the stories I have to tell about them are most likely too convoluted for a short blog post.

I often say that college for me was much more about life experience than about classroom learning. The people I encountered certainly taught me a lot. Reading this, though, I am rather surprised that I managed to make it through college with a decent gpa and my scholarship intact.

Go figure.