It warms my heart to see how totally over the moon excited you all are about purchasing things for your first home away from home. Faux fur rugs, picture frames, bedding and the like. Dorm stuff and apartment stuff. These are exciting times thinking about being on your own and designing your own space. I remember my first days at Ole Miss. My dorm room was the size of a closet, totally uncoordinated with another girl that was a total stranger. She was a beauty pageant queen from rural Mississippi and she taught me so many country-isms that I still laugh about today. She was always warning me about “getting foot-rot if I did not wear my shower shoes in the communal bathroom down the hall,” which is translated as “you’ll get athletes foot if you don’t wear flip flops.” I must have looked at her like a tree full of owls when she referred to the screeching smoke detector in the hall as the “fiiiiire siiiireeeen.” She was such a hoot. I still have such fond memories of her, her always meticulously made-up-and-ready-for-anything face and her ginormous cans of Aqua Net Hairspray….which always ensured the biggest hair in the state of Mississippi.
We ate our weight in microwave popcorn, which contributed somewhat to the
Freshman 15, and talked a lot about boys. Although we pledged different sororities, which is a whole topic unto itself, that turned out to be terrific because it doubled our number of friends. So, here’s to all the sweet new friends you will make along the way, the popcorn and secrets you will share on your perfectly coordinated bedding and the memories you’ll savor for years to come. And please, don’t forget the shower shoes.
“Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold.”
“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But, pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But, how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-6:12
A FRUITFUL LEGACY 