Roomies

There are friends, and then there's family.  We live, learn, laugh, and cry with our families on a daily basis.  Friends toss extra flavor and spice into the mix.  Together, family and friends create a recipe for success.

We have school friends and neighborhood buddies.  There are pen-pals we'll never meet, and those kids at we met at camp, that while in our lives for only a week or so, find a way to remain within us somehow.  There are no finite categories defining friendships, or limits as to how many friends one can have.    

Roommates are more or less a category "on the cusp" between that of friends and family.  College life provides a unique environment, more or less a bridge of sorts into the "real world".  Roommates are part of that. 

Sharing personal space, making compromises, dealing with differing moods . . .  accompanied by plenty of unvarnished conversation, are all a part of the roommate realm.  Quirky skills such as figuring out how to make spaghetti in a hot pot or frying up a batch of quick doughnuts in a popcorn popper build creativity and ingenuity.  New words enter our vocabulary, such as "Toodles", and we gain a new appreciation for all kinds of things.  

Was there really a time when I didn't know who Billie Holiday was?  Or listen to Kansas as loud as possible?  And when did I acquire a taste for saxophone music and whole grain bread?  

Mundane tasks take on new reality as one realizes that clean bathrooms and folded laundry do not "just happen".

Maybe I am luckier than most on the roommate front because I hit the jackpot.  We shared both the best of times and the worst of times, hopefully finding ourselves better as a result.  It's been over forty years since those roomie days, and we have indeed found our "happy places" in the world.  As an added bonus, we've been fortunate enough to stay in touch over the years, for which I'm very grateful. 

Life experiences aren't really much different from recipes.  Some turn out well, others not so much.  Still others simply need a little tweaking.  The best become our "recipes for life" and find a way to endure, living on in the best ways possible.

      

Dedicated to my roomies - Sharon, Cindy, & Kathy