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College Memories

In my Sophomore year, I lived in a music-themed dorm. Oh, excuse me, not a dorm but a "residence hall" as the Housing authorities want us to call the little rooms where the students live. I had actually signed up for the building that they told me would be the substance-free (i.e. drug free) hall, but it turned out to be the music hall instead. I decided it was too much trouble to try to move to another hall, so I just stayed where I was signed up.

I thought the music hall would be full of music majors who played instruments like flute, saxophone, and violin. As it turned out, many of the students who stayed in the hall were guitarists or just loved music in general. Because of that, we had some, well, interesting people living in our building. We had a few real crazy characters, but all of the people there were cool guys and gals.

Once a semester, our hall would have a "music night" in the student lounge, and those are some cherished memories for me. The couches were set up so that there was a sort of stage at the back of the lounge where people would perform. The audience would sit on the couches and on the floor and wherever they could find a spot. Lots of pizza and other snacks were provided, and for a few hours the people that had signed up to perform would get up and do their thing.

A lot of the bands/musicians were really good! There was a lot of rock going on, and some piano too. My roommate even did a poem and drum performance at one of the music nights. One time, a guy performed the Super Mario Brothers theme song on his guitar!! That got a lot of laughs. Some of the songs were funny, and some were really beautiful. Most of all, I just thought it was cool for us all to gather around and just celebrate music and the making of that music. It was neat to see what our hallmates could do, and what sort of songs turned them on.

We had three music nights in all, and each one was cool in its own way. I had a blast watching all the musicians, and I felt that those nights brought us a little closer as a community.

Sometime, I'll tell maybe a few more stories about my dorm that year. Not all of them good stories! For now, I'll say that during fire drills that year, we had to cross the street and stand on the other side!! That was NOT very fun.