A Fresh Perspective: Sharing is caring (I guess...)

Whether you were dominating on the field or court, jamming out to Rockapella, salsa dancing or just having a blast, I hope everyone had an awesome weekend. My Saturday was spent on the sidelines of the football game doing my work study as an equipment manager. For the rest of the weekend, I hung out and shared some great times with great people. This kind of sharing is always fun, but it’s other types of sharing I’m still adjusting to. My first thought in this instance would have to be the dorm bathrooms.

I’m living in Brandt this year, which, don’t get me wrong, is really nice. However, I’m still struggling with the concept of sacrificing my own bathroom at home for one in which I shower and brush my teeth in the company of dozens of other young ladies. We’ve all been here a little over two weeks now, but it still throws me off to roll out of bed and go about my morning routine alongside several others.

Another space that has been difficult to share is the laundry room. I’ve finally decided that, contrary to popular belief, Sunday afternoon is not the most ideal time to wash your clothes. It seems like this is the time of week when everyone and their roommate wants to do their laundry. I walked into the laundry/study lounge to find two people waiting patiently for owners to come claim their wet clothes from the machine. As I hung around with my friend Kimmy, we eventually came to the conclusion that we would just nicely place our anonymous classmates’ clothing into a dryer and hope they wouldn’t be too upset. This did lead to a bit of awkwardness, unfortunately, when Kimmy had to come into contact with the boxers of an unknown young man! Four washers and six dryers may not be enough to accommodate an entire wing, but we’ll make it work somehow.

After the laundry episode, I had a craving for some Easy Mac. I went downstairs to use the microwave and found the entire kitchen covered in pans of delicious-looking chocolate cookies being made by an ambitious college student. I maneuvered my way to the microwave and had just put in my mac ‘n’ cheese when another hungry girl appeared with a bowl of oatmeal. We all waited our turns and ended up happy. Apparently, the kitchen is another popular place to be on Sunday afternoon.

With shared space comes shared germs, and the proof of this statement lies in the flu epidemic around Luther College. I feel like I’ve been practically bathing in hand sanitizer and going obsessive-compulsive about hand washing. With all the talk about quarantined students and people being sent home, I’m just crossing my fingers that I don’t catch it!

Although I’ve recently had some bumps in the road of sharing, college is supposed to be for new experiences. I’m definitely learning to be more flexible, but I’m still not okay with sharing the gift of swine flu. Wash your hands, drink water and stay healthy!