Bust a Move

Sightings of truckbeds piled high with furniture, trashbags full of clothes, and frantic parents swarming campus dorms tells the Aggie community one thing: it is time again for fall move in. From residence halls to apartment complexes, anywhere a person can set up shop is being overrun with Aggies preparing their home away from home for the year ahead.

For freshmen, it may be their first time away from home, but for seniors, it may be their first time in their fourth home. Either way, the moving process for most students includes setting up furniture, stocking up on food, and getting to know roommates.

Russell Ramsey, a freshman psychology major, is one of the many freshmen entering Texas A&M this year who has decided to live on campus. He said he's a little apprehensive about the move in the dorms, but is excited about meeting his new roommate.

"I chose to take the chance and have a roommate that I had not met before," Ramsey said. "Going potluck on the roommate thing will give me the opportunity to learn about a life that may be different than mine, perhaps giving me a new perspective on things. Rooming with a stranger will force me to fine tune my interpersonal skills."

Ramsey said he knows many people who chose to live with a best friend, but believes their relationship would suffer from living with one another in such close proximity.

"I talked to my roommate via email and I can already tell we have stuff in common, which is cool," Ramsey said. "Some of the best advice I've been given is to try everything once, and living in the dorms and having a complete stranger as a roommate could fall under this recommendation."

For many freshmen, the shock of leaving home does not truly hit until they realize that with a college life comes a certain amount of responsibility.

"I'm a bit apprehensive about getting out there on my own and taking on so many responsibilities," Ramsey said. "Things such as washing clothes, setting the alarm, doing my homework, and other things moms are good at enforcing at home are going to be a little bit harder now that I don't have someone watching my back and making sure I get things done."

Watching her back was one of the main reasons Kimberly Dyess, a freshman civil engineering major, decided to forego the potluck and stick with the proverbial.

"When I decided to live in the dorms I knew I wanted to live with someone I could trust, so living with one of my good friends just seemed like the best choice," Dyess said. "I've known my roommate about six years, so we know each other pretty well. I worry about living with someone I know very little about and running the risk of them going through my personal things."

Dyess and her roommate are both freshmen engineering majors and have many of the same classes. Dyess said she feels this will be very convenient and helpful since they are living together.

"There are pros and cons to having a good friend as a roommate, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons," Dyess said. "There is a chance we could get on each others nerves being around each other so much. Like my tendency to take about a decade to wake up in the morning, alarm blaring and all. That could be an issue, but having a good friend around makes my transition to A&M that much easier."

For freshmen, the change of living arrangements from home to dorm can be strange and a little confining, but for sophomore business administration major, Jeff Viktorin, the change from dorm to apartment is welcomed and liberating.

"You have so much more freedom living off campus," Viktorin said. "I can cook and eat whenever I want, and I have more privacy now that I have my own room. The problem with living off campus is you don't have the close proximity to campus that is such a plus about living on campus."

Viktorin found his move into the apartment not as bad as expected, except the increased amount of furniture needed to live in a larger place. When moving into the new place Viktorin had his own idea of what his apartment should include.

"My dream apartment would be infinitely stocked with food and beer, require no rent, and would include a big screen TV hooked up to a Play Station 2 with an infinite supply of games," Viktorin said.

Viktorin lives with three other guys, including his old roommate from when he lived in the residence hall. He does not know the other two roommates as well, but said he has started to warm up to them.

"My roommates are great," Viktorin said. "We are all so different, which is probably what makes us get along so well. We all bring something different to the table, which is obvious through the appearance of our apartment. We all have our own style, but somewhere along the way we found we can get along pretty well."

Johnny Hernandez, a junior psychology major, is also living with three other guys, and has decided to put down roots in a house outside College Station.

"I was just really tired of living in an apartment," Hernandez said. "I wanted some place where I could kick up my feet and play the stereo real loud without worrying about the neighbors. A house just gives me that certain amount of freedom that I felt like I really needed."

Hernandez moved into his new digs a couple of weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised at how easy the move actually was.

"I just made sure I had everything packed and ready to go," Hernandez said. "And that includes having a truck and boxes and all the other extras that go along with making moving into a new place a little easier. My roommate, on the other hand, took longer to move because I think he had more stuff and it got a little crazy when we were trying to move him in."

Hernandez says he has an issue with only one part of living in a house.

"I have an issue with the yard work," Hernandez said. "Just the maintenance that is needed on a place like ours is something I could do without. But it is just great to have a place of our own and now that all of the moving is over I can sit back, turn my stereo up and relax."