Revisiting the Dorms

This week, I spent some time in the campus dorms. I haven't really been in any dorm since I moved out at the end of my Freshman year, and haven't really had the desire to be either. I was just picking up my friend who didn't have a car so that she could come to my off-campus house for the night. I met her outside Rhody Market and drove her to her dorm, Heathman. As I pulled into the circle outside Heathman, I realized I was going to have to parallel park- something I hadn't really done since I was a high school senior visiting my friends at URI on weekends. No big deal, I thought, I used to do this every weekend. As I attempted to pull in to a giant spot, I grew more and more flustered. When I was on the verge of giving up, my friend offered to give it a try. It took her about ten tries, but eventually we had an acceptable parking job. As we got out of the car and walked up to Heathman, I realized I hadn't been inside in years. As we walked through the doors, a rush of memories came flooding back. I remembered all the good times I'd had on campus before I was even a URI student, rather than the awful experiences I'd had as a freshman with my roommates. Seeing the way that my friend interacted with the people in her hall and her suitemates made me wish that I'd had as great a time on campus as she was having. I decided to do my next project for my travel writing class, my cultural submersion piece, about a night I spent on campus with my friend and her suitemates.