On college move-in day of junior year, I was nervous. You’d think by junior year I’d be used to the hustle and bustle of move-in days as I had already had two under my belt, but this year was different. Not only was I living with my current roommates for the very first time; we were also living on the other side of campus… the townhouses.
Now, to me, the townhouses had always been some elusive housing where only the cool older kids on campus had lived. Now, here I was, with eight million bags, trying to move into my townhouse. I did not feel any cooler or any older, that was for sure.
As I walked through my townhouse, it felt sterile and like a blank slate in a slightly intimidating way, given that it was a brand new place where I would be living with the coolest people I know.
I chose to look at it as a blank slate. Use this opportunity to make something not only mine, but mine and my roommates as a collective effort.
As my roommates started to trickle in and the “Hi, I missed you” ‘s were settling down, it was clear and evident that the one thing we had not necessarily accounted for was the amount of furniture we had gotten in relation to the actual size of our living room.
We had the standard townhouse furniture of course, but we also had a plethora of unique and mismatched furniture piling up in our living room. A black suede futon for sleepover guests, a gray recliner for “doing work” in (even though we would nap instead), a circular foldable chair with a fuzzy pink pillow. We even had a red paisley, torn up couch off the side of the road that my roommate Riley had snagged for us.
After we had all spent a good time scratching our heads trying to decide how we wanted to configure all of this furniture, we birthed the most significant turning point in our friendship: the furniture U.
Oh yes, it IS exactly what it sounds like. We shoved some original townhouse chairs into closets, artfully mastering the skill of chair jenga, and finally had all of the furniture in a U sitting in our living room. It was perfect.
The furniture U was the binding force of our group friendship of four and I couldn’t be more thankful. The U allowed us many nights watching Survivor. Chats and debriefs after dance shows were held with flowers from family and fast food all around. We even have many a photo of three out of the four of us napping peacefully in our U.
I know, I know, you must be wondering: “Does the U still exist today?” and the answer to no ones surprise is yes, yes it does. Though the location of the U has moved down the road a little ways into a bright pink house, the U does still live on. It offers us a chance to continue on the most beautiful friendships I have ever had the privilege to be a part of.