Matriculation by Fire
by Stephanie Zvan
Despite my nebulous fears, my first day at college started well. I didn't forget anything at home. My mother and brothers didn't insist on hanging around and embarrassing me. I'd met one of my roommates, and aside from the stuffed animals and unicorn posters, she seemed highly tolerable. I made plans to meet her later at Matriculation, whatever that was, and she left to tour campus with her parents. I unpacked.
When I finished, I looked around. I had my books and my own desk, my new roommate had brought a small fridge, and the window by my bed looked out over a tiny green courtyard. All in all, the outlook for college wasn't too bad. I headed out to matriculate.
And the door wouldn't open. I flipped the deadbolt and could hear that it wasn't turning. Shaking the door and swearing at it produced similar outcomes. Curling up on my new bed and crying wasn't helpful either.
Eventually, sniffling and feeling as stupid as I've ever felt in my life (anyone else remember junior high?), I called the one phone number I had on campus. Astoundingly, security didn't laugh when I said I was locked in my dorm room. They said they'd get a maintenance guy out ASAP--which, translated into real time, meant about an hour. I read.
When the guy showed up, he asked me to pass him the key under the door. The lock behaved perfectly for him. I felt stupid again, but I was free...or could be if I didn't mind leaving the maintenance guy with no way to relock my door when he was done. I went back to my book.
Then the guy whistled. "There's an extra washer in here; I don't know why." (Yes, my memory is capable of supplying semicolons even to angels disguised as maintenance guys.) "It keeps the lock from turning, like this. According to the records, no one has worked on this lock since spring. This room was used over the summer, so you can't have been the first person trapped in here. I wonder why no one else called us?" Remembering how idiotic I'd felt, I knew, but I didn't tell him.
So don't forget to speak up for yourself while you're at college. Question things that don't seem right, don't seem to work. And when you feel stupid--as inevitable in college as in life--remember the people who lived in my room before I did, who made stupid a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Then you can tell me what I missed at Matriculation.
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