Common Ground

One of the really awesome things about college, or I suppose life in general, is finding people who are interested in the same things as you are, whether that’s a fandom, like Harry Potter, or something more influential in your life, like your faith.  I’ve been very lucky to find people who share my interests at SU.

My Harry Potter Poster

Creative writing is huge in that regard.  Some of my closest friends, including my roommate, are fellow Creative Writing majors, with whom I can be nerdy about books or discuss the pains of revisions, conferences, and critique letters.

Speaking of books, I am a die-hard Harry Potter fan.  This love goes beyond the books and includes A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel, two parody musicals on YouTube about Harry Potter.  Very few of my friends were familiar with these musicals at home, but it seems like a lot of people here know about them.  In the beginning of the year, I was often singing “Gotta Get Back to Hogwarts” and “Granger Danger” with a friend here who’s also a big Harry Potter fan.  Additionally, I have people who can understand my raving about Ron and Hermione, my favorite literary couple, and my ranting about Ginny and Hermione, a couple that I find fairly irritating.

TV shows can be another area of common ground.  Just last night, I watched Glee with my roommate and my friend Karen.  It’s a lot more fun to watch, squeal and laugh and sometimes mock, with friends rather than alone.  I also had an awesome Boy Meets World marathon with my friends once and towards the beginning of the year had many viewings of one of my all-time favorite shows Freaks and Geeks.

As I said earlier, college has also been a great time to find and connect with people who share my faith.  I have great Christian friends in my dorm, and especially through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, I’ve been able to meet so many more people who share this important aspect of my life and values.  Particularly, the small Life Group I've attended has helped me make friendships with others of my faith.  

I love how natural it has been to find these people with common interests, and I love how these common interests have evolved into friendships! 

Posters: A Dorm Room Essential



A blurry picture of my poster

At the beginning of the year, my dorm room was a bit disgraceful, lacking in something quintessential and collegiate—posters.   



I didn’t happen upon any that struck me as just right, and I was very much set on finding the perfect posters.  Not any cliché Audrey Hepburn/Marilyn Monroe/James Dean kind of thing.  Something representative of me, though so representative that, say, my Jonas Brothers interest might scare away potential friends.  I couldn't even find something when the poster fair came to SU.       

On a weekend shopping trek, I finally came across what was to be my First College Poster—a Disney Princess poster from WalMart.  One of the jokes among my friends, particularly earlier in the year, was that I can be a Disney Princess sometimes, so obviously I felt called to it.  Even now, many discussions come back to Disney.  My friend Lindsey and I spent a whole lunch rehashing what Disney characters all our friends would be.  I’m Snow White, by the way.  Accidentally, I grabbed a different Disney Princess poster than the one I saw on the rack, but luckily I ended up preferring the one I purchased. 

I didn’t get my next poster until Winter Break.  It’s a Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows poster and far from perfect.  I often lament how it minimizes Ron Weasley, who is so much more important than the movies and commercials would lead one to believe.  Still, it’s a great representation of my interests.  At heart, and truthfully at the surface, I am quite the Harry Potter fangirl.



Also featured on my walls are a colored-in princess, deemed Princess Megan, from a Saturday afternoon early in the year, spent with coloring books and a few friends in the lounge.  My tack board features a photo of Darren Criss, printed out for me some months ago by my lovely roommate Sarah.  If you’re not in the know (but if you know me, I’m sure you are), Darren Criss is the star of YouTube hits A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel and is a relatively new cast member of Glee.   Additionally, I have a drawing with my name on it from one of my best friends at home.  

Typing up this post, it really is clear to me that your walls can reveal a lot about you.



Unfortunately, I don’t have enough wall space to reveal quite as much as I might like.  One of the things about Hass is that the rooms vary in size.  My room is on the smaller, a.k.a. smallest, side and requires bunked beds for space, which means sacrificing room for posters.  Other rooms in Hass provide ample opportunity for self expression, however.  For example, my friends Lindsey and Alexis seem to have posters on every inch of wall.  Their poster count must dwarf my room’s dinky total of two.  However, I think it’s just enough to let people know what I am: a Harry Potter loving princess.

Okay, well, maybe that’s not me exactly. 

But that must describe some part of me, at least.