Door decorations can save the day
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 11:32AM By Monica Kreber
Monica KreberI lived in Wofford Hall my freshman year at Winthrop.
I lived in room 314 -- if you are familiar where the “14” rooms are, you would know they are located right by one of the staircases in both Wofford and Richardson.
During my first week at school, right about when classes started, I decided to make a trip to Bi-Lo in order to stock up on the food my mother would not let me buy had I been at home.
I went by myself, and came back to find a parking spot as close to Wofford as possible since I had all those bags of groceries (if you are new here, good luck parking where you want).
Luckily, I landed a spot in one of the parking spaces right behind Wofford and Richardson -- the row of spaces that directly face Cherry Road.
I got my student ID out of its case and clutched it between two fingers as I loaded my arms with heavy grocery bags. I walked up to the back door of my building and swiped my card. The door “rejected” me and I could not get in. After angrily swiping a couple of times the door finally opened when a boy came walking out of the building.
Deciding to forget about my card not working, I made a beeline for the staircase and climbed the stairs to the third floor. When in the hall I put all my groceries down in front of room 314. I got my room key out and tried opening my door. The key would not turn.
I could hear voices on the other side of the door, and figured my roommate had the television on. As I raised my fist to knock on the door I noticed the happy Welcome Week nametags stuck under the peephole: “Welcome Alex!” “Welcome Brandon!”
Who are Alex and Brandon?
Realizing someone answering the door would mean a red face burning in embarrassment for myself, I seized my groceries and started sprinting back down the stairs, hearing Brandon and Alex’s doorknob turn and open in reply to some crazy girl who tried to break into their room.
I do not know if they witnessed me fleeing Richardson Hall and hustling over to the correct residence hall that was, indeed, my own.
I tell myself they didn’t, but who knows?
Maybe one of the guys will read this and call his former roommate up and say, “Hey, remember that one time when that chick with the groceries tried to get in our room...?”
The first thing you can take from this story is, duh, make sure you know what residence hall you live in. However, I have used this story as an ice breaker with people I have wound up meeting over the years at Winthrop.
The reason it works as a good ice breaker is because silly stories like these, while they may make you look crazy, they also make you look a little more human. You might make a mistake or two your freshman year, but try not to beat yourself up about it, try to find a way to laugh about it (although, to be honest, I refused to tell anyone this story for at least a month).
It might help if you take people with you on your outings.
That way one of them will stop you before you wander into the wrong residence hall (by the way, do not call it a “dorm.” It is a residence hall. Get used to it).
After trying to break into Alex and Brandon’s room, I started getting into decorating my door for, virtually, every month of the year. In preparation for Halloween I taped creepy crawlers (rubber lizards and snakes) all over my door -- it really made my room stand out on my hallway.
The decorations make your room look more inviting, anyway, plus it is another conversation-starter, so feel free to customize your door -- some residence halls even offer prizes to those who show their dorm (sorry -- residence hall) spirit.
So, lessons learned, decorating your door will:
A) make you appear more welcoming
B) possibly earn you prizes
C) prevent you from waltzing into the wrong room
