Once Removed
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: Campus Chronicles
By Donna Buie Beall

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
~Aristotle

It was my first day of college at the University of South Carolina and I feared that my roommate wasn’t coming. “Don’t worry,” my mother comforted me, “I’m sure she’ll be here.”

But enough time passed that even she grew concerned. We wiped our perspiring brows and listened to the jarring sounds of the dormitory elevator doors and loud shrieks of the other girls as they lugged suitcases to their rooms and began discussing dinner plans. For weeks now, I had imagined how this experience might unfold: meet my roommate, decide on a color scheme for the room, venture to the cafeteria together to taste an unfamiliar meal, and begin the regular habit of saving seats for each other. The minutes ticked away. (Keep reading)