Place

Separate but equal is the approach that my roommate and I took when we moved in. To keep things separate, his things were on the left and mine were on the right. The equal part comes in if one of us wanted to use something of the other’s. This meant that almost anything we own was open to use with permission. We decided that we didn’t want to combine any of our things just yet because we didn’t know each other that well. I believed it was a good idea because it reduced the chance of an argument over whose things were whose. Having two guys in such a small space can lead to unwanted confrontation and screaming matches. I’m not a territorial person, but he was and for that reason, separate but equal was definitely the best approach.

My dorm room was ridiculously small. Everyone’s dorm room was small, but for some reason mine just felt the smallest. I don’t understand how SUCO's residence officials expected two men to live there. I saw many arrangements in different rooms. Some rooms actually did look like they have more space, but was still too small to work with. What’s worse was that the space seemed even smaller when I added my belongings. Having such a small room made it hard to keep things separate. I figured that my room was about two-and-a-quarter arm lengths wide and three-and-a-quarter arm lengths long. With both beds lofted against the wall that gives about two feet of walking space between beds. This meant the dividing line is about one foot away from our beds. A room that small can easily be cluttered and you could easily be invaded.

Walking into my room, one of the first things that strike the nose is the fresh Febreze smell. The scent is a combination of dryer sheets and cotton. Something that may catch the eye is all the red in the room. My room is red from my rug to my sheets and even the cups I used. My mother figured that everything goes with red so it didn’t matter what color my roommate brought. I was wrong; he brought green items so we kind of had a Christmas theme going but it wasn't that bad. All of the red colors that I had overpowered his greens. Another visual that may catch the eye was the cleanliness of one side of the room compared to the other. The right side, my side, was always neat and orderly but to the left was normally a wreck. Clothes are usually everywhere and it makes for a cluttered room. When a room is cluttered it looks even smaller. Sometimes when I walked through the door, his towel and dirty clothes were right in the middle of the floor. It was blatant to see that in most cases, he didn't remember the “separate but equal” rule. It’s ironic that this was happening because he thought of the idea. I guess he was comfortable enough with me halfway through the year to join more of our belongings.

Earlier I mentioned a little about the layout of my dorm room. Now, here is the full version. When you came into the dorm, each set up on the right and left are basically the same. The closets are against the same wall as the door in separate corners.