My First Year

The first thing she heard was me screaming at my father.

It was just before noon, and since I lived within the 20 miles from campus that mandated early check-in, I was already unpacked and affixing posters to the cork walls of my fifth floor Wallach single. My dad and I were arguing-quite loudly and with the door open-over the merits of certain hanging methods when Lauren, a 5'11 runner from "Big D" walked by. I realized she was one of my suitemates and from the nasty stare she shot in my direction, I realized I hadn't made the greatest first impression. Needless to say, I ignored her silent disapproval and went back to risking my tuition over a petty parental squabble.

I don't think I spoke to Lauren for a few days after that incident, yet as the opening weeks of school passed, I got to know "the Texan." She was a southern girl who found nothing wrong with her governor, whom I loathed. She was super-tall and super fast while I was a measly 5'2, out-of-practice tennis player who some say runs like a grandma. She was excitedly awaiting rush and pledging a sorority while I had sworn, like the rest of my sisters, to bypass Greek life. The more I learned about Lauren, the more I realized that all we had in common was our status as Scorpios and the fact that we both showered late at night.

But then one day, which neither one of us can pinpoint now, our brief small talks in the kitchen turned into long talks-actually, very long talks-in the cloistered confines of our rooms. We routinely went for coffee, frozen yogurt, and gourmet Upper West Side and SoHo meals we could barely afford. We'd leave repeated messages for each other on our white boards. I'd sit in my room early Saturday evening waiting for her to return from track meets so we could catch up on the weekend's events. She'd leave little messages (and sometimes even presents!) to welcome me when I groggily returned from the Spectator at 6 a.m.

Somehow, after the horrible performance with my family, after her rude reaction to it, even after her lack of delight that I demonstrated when Bush visited New York, we managed to form a friendship so close that the idea of us living in different buildings this semester is driving us crazy.

And I think that-more than insights into the "Odyssey" or the writings of Confucius -was the greatest lesson of my first year at Columbia. I arrived here expecting to find a certain sort of diversity -the rainbow of multiculturalism that my Northern New Jersey public school did not provide. And while I most definitely found those differences on College Walk, I also found something-and someone-I was not expecting. I learned that true diversity is found within people's beliefs and perceptions. And I found that in a southern sorority girl and George W. Bush supporter, this liberal, Jewish, loud-mouth Jersey girl could also find a friend.

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Robyn Schwartz is a Columbia College sophomore. She is an Associate News Editor of the Spectator.