Necessities For Successful College Living
I never realized the magnitude of "back to college" as a major retailing event. If advertising is any guide, a successful college experience demands assorted accouterments. Like refrigerators, closet organizers, storage units, shelves, bean bags, foam pads, televisions, and sound systems. Spartan dorm rooms must become efficient study havens.
Perhaps my memory flags at this point, but I recall but three necessities Mother insisted I carry to college: an umbrella, a steam iron and a foot locker. Not understanding her reasoning, I balked at all three.
But Fayetteville in the fall convinced me of the umbrella's utility, and wrinkled clothing soon forced me to tame the fiendish iron. But with no place to stow it, the footlocker became a perpetual tripping hazard in my cramped Yocum Hall room. Mothers aren't always right.
Moving into the older but more spacious Sedgwell House the following year, I expanded my necessities. A homemade "desktop study ensemble" cobbled from four slabs of unpainted pine 1x10 and a fluorescent lamp served me admirably. I eventually cannibalized it to construct a similar monstrosity.
Bill Childs, however, embraced more sophisticated necessities: a component stereo system fueled by a generous stack of LP albums. Cowboy Copas, Skeeter Davis and Floyd Cramer inspired him to fend off opponents in the ferocious games of crazy eights that gravitated to his room.
I traveled light back then, accumulating little but an ever-swelling library of engineering textbooks. Insurance in the "real world" soon to come, I thought. Students aren't always right either.
I secured another necessity my senior year. Impressively, that little AM radio pulled Kansas City broadcasts of Chickenman into the dilapidated Theta Tau house on Dickson Street. Surprisingly, roommates Floyd Murphy and Travis Porter never appreciated those thrilling episodes of the Wonderful White-winged Weekend Warrior.
Funny how necessities change; what seemed important then has lost relevance now.
Should I move into a dorm room today, I'd embrace different necessities: my Bible, journal and computer system. The Bible's spiritual wellspring of strength and wisdom must find written emotional expression to help this aging student survive a world he hadn't expected. And high-tech gadgetry helps me move from Newton's laws to Webster's words.
And how could I move without both of my recent dorm room purchases? The DormSleeper foam mattress facilitates a good night's sleep, and the bed risers hoist the bed just enough to compensate for the thinner mattress. High enough for a footlocker, too!
Spiritual strength, emotional expression and physical rest. Necessities now, I could have used them then--but didn't know it.
Copyright 2004 James McAlister
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