Seeing all parts of the whole...

When I transferred to the University of Rhode Island my sophomore year, I had never even visited the campus. I had never been further northeast than Tennessee. I had never seen more than a sprinkling of snow. I knew not one person who went to school there. The day I arrived I went through a round of about 3 to 4 people before I found my dorm room. Each time I spoke with one, they would ask me, "who is your roommate?" And, I would happily reply, "Amy Blahblah* ". From every single person I uttered these words to, I received the same response. Their faces automatically dropped, and they offered some form of "Oh God, I'm sorry".

Well, being naturally terrified of a new school in a new town in a new state in a new part of the country, this did not make me feel much better. I finally arrived in my new room and began unpacking, a brick of dread lodged in my stomach. A few minutes later when Amy walked in, I greeted her with a warm hello. No response. Her only utterance was to boss around some guy she was with and tell him where to put her things. Not a good start. From there, I learned to disappear into the wall whenever possible, as she snarled and complained and yelled, I mean YELLED, at our floormates down the hall when they were being what she deemed as too loud.

Eventually, it became too uncomfortable and I set out to find alternate living arrangements. When I found I could move to another dorm room, I was scared to tell her. But one afternoon as she was folding laundry, I told her my plans. Surprisingly, her face dropped. She was visibly upset. She had no idea that her actions were having this effect on me. She apologized over and over and asked me not to move out. So, the next day I canceled my moving arrangements with the housing office, and from then on out, we became really good friends. She protected me from the annoying people in the hall. She introduced me to the stirfry station in the cafeteria. She took care of me when I got sick- my first time being sick away from my mom. She always got me Awful Awfuls and double Cheeseburgers from McDonald's, always with no ketchup. A lot of people didn't see the Amy that I saw; all they saw was a bitch, and they immediately shut out the rest. But they were wrong, and I was wrong. I realized then that if I were to shut out all the people I knew just because of one view of them, one part of their personality that I didn't like, I would have missed out on knowing a lot of people. I wouldn't know my sister, my best friend, my father. No one is just one part. Everyone has many parts. Everyone has something valuable to give. Don't let one thing you disagree with about someone cloud your vision from all of the amazing things they have to offer.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/



*names have been changed to protect the bitchy. :)