Roommate Reflections

Emma Norton and Meagan Bird

In 2006, I joined the marching band when I came to NC State as a junior transfer from a community college out of state. I met my best friend, Emma Norton, in my section. At the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year, we moved in together in Wolf Village and lived together there until we both graduated in December 2009. Since then, we have both established careers in different states but talk nearly everyday. We are completely opposite in so many ways, but yet we work great together. Her family is like my family! Early on, we gave each other nicknames that we still use for each other (Skippy and Dingbat) and started joking that we share a brain since we are often thinking the same thing at the same time. We try to get together as often as we can, which isn’t very often, but it’s always worth it when we do. I have so many great pictures and memories from our years together at State.

Charles Poston

I told my children who went to ECU, WCU and Wingate: Make good grades, study hard but meet as many friends as possible — this will be what you remember later in life. We buried my mother recently. Several people I met in the dorms 46 years ago were present.

Steve Powell

My roommate and I met at State while standing in line for President Ronald Reagan’s speech in Reynolds. We became fast friends and roomed together for two years in Bragaw. We were in each other’s weddings, and even now he and I get together on most Saturday mornings for coffee.

Jennifer Holland Gilmore

I’m in touch with quite a few of my old roommates, but there is one in particular that I’d like to tell you about. Her name is Gina Newell Fitts. Gina and I met as first-year students living in Lee, but we really didn’t get to know each other well until our junior year. We were majoring in the same thing and had two classes back to back.

We had also made the connection that we were born in the same hospital less than 24 hours apart. When Gina and a friend were looking for a new roommate, I ended up moving in with them. It was only after that we realized my mother had written her name in my baby book all those years ago: Someone I might want to renew acquaintances with later. We have been inseparable friends for all these years. Even our daughters went to NC State together and participated in the ring ceremony this past spring.

Chuck Kleeberg

I spent all four years in the dorm and had four roommates. Honestly, each one irritated me at some point — even my younger brother, Tom. One snored. One couldn’t sleep without listening to terrible music. Another liked to pull all-nighters. Another got up too early. But I benefited from all. Each one had new perspectives. I loved their stories.

My roommate from Bogata Colombia told exotic tales. My Virginia roommate told funny stories. Even my brother had stories I had never heard. And roommates bring in their friends, each with their own stories and experiences. They all helped me to create new experiences and do things I would have never have thought to do on my own. In the spring of my senior year my brother had an idea for a project to complete during our break.

“Let’s put that Mickey Mouse from your shirt on the side of our barn,” he said. I got out some graph paper, he traced it, then transposed the grid to the barn, and voila … A thirty-foot-tall Mickey Mouse.

It’s still there and is my most tangible legacy of an NC State roommate. But the intangibles are even bigger. I realize now that an irritating roommate is a valuable life lesson. No one is free of irritation in their life, so learning how to cope with it is invaluable. And their experiences and stories became part of me. Eleanor Roosevelt advised us to learn from the mistakes of others because we wouldn’t live long enough to make them all ourselves. I got a real education in mistake making. They say that the purpose of college is to find your passion and find your Pack. Roommates guide you to both.

Peter Powell

I met my roommate when I found my room in September 1966. He was from Teaneck, New Jersey, and I was from South Jersey. Our room was tiny. It was in Syme on the 3rd floor next to the showers. At some point in our freshman year, the largest room in Syme became available and we moved. We roomed together all four years and were in that room, 318, for all four years.

I was in the marching band and brass choir (Euphonium). The first time I marched out onto the field wearing pants that were adjustable and I hadn’t adjusted them correctly, I was afraid my pants would fall off. I was so concerned about that spectacle that I didn’t play a note. I continued in the bands for all four years and learned how to adjust the pants.

At one point we built an N gauge train set and kept it for the remainder of our time at State. It was popular with everyone. We would raid the electronic dumps and had a computer control board with lights that we rewired to control all of the lights in our room. This was the 60s so there were lots of lights and toggle switches. It was probably very unsafe but fortunately we didn’t harm ourselves or anyone else. The main freight railroad line runs through the campus and next to Syme. We learned to pause our conversations when the train ran through.

• Please note that stories have been edited for readability and grammar.