Megan filled out her roommate personality profile last night for UNI. It made me recall that a roommate personality profile didn't exist in the fall of 1988, which is when I started classes at Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids. My roommate, Dave, and I were assigned to each other. I recall we had exchanged letters prior to the day we each moved in and, probably, somewhere I have the letter in which he described himself. He rattled off a bunch of hard rock music bands - I specifically remember reading Poison and Def Leppard in his letter - and that he was going to play basketball. He also stated that he excelled in sports. In the time span between when he wrote that letter to me and our first day of being roommates, things must have changed for him. I never once heard him put in a cassette of Poison or Def Leppard during that year. Instead, he seemed to like a lot of the rap that was popular at the time like 2 Live Crew. "Hey, we want some..." seemed to be his favorite song to play when he was getting ready to go out. (No, I'm not going to embed that song below.) The point of all this is that the roommate you were assigned as a freshman in college seemed random. Karen talks about how her roommate during her freshman year was totally opposite of her. On paper, Dave seemed like a great match but there was a difference between what he wrote and what he was really like.
Another difference is that articles like this one about parents paying for college didn't exist or if they did, I never came across them. You can call me a spoiled brat, if you want, but I didn't pay for my college education. In fact, I had a work study "job" my senior year of college and I only recall turning in my timesheet once or twice. I had a total disconnect between "paying for college" and what that meant for my parents. I guess you could say I didn't have any skin in the game.
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