About an hour before lab started several weeks ago, one of my students was sitting on a sofa in a lobby area and reading the course textbook. (A good activity for a teacher to see.) So I sat down with her and asked about her semester and how it was going in our class. She’s had some health issues, so this was a good time to talk about that privately.

She discussed the challenges of writing on deadline and being required to find story topics and people to interview. But she was positive about the experience overall and added that this semester was so much better than the previous year (her freshman year). 

One of the challenges last year was being assigned to room with a gal who “didn’t share similar values,” as my student put it. My student put a priority on studying. Her roommate didn’t. 

One day the roommate announced she had a new job. My student congratulated her and asked where she was working, thinking that she would be working at one of the area restaurants. Not so. The roommate had been hired to be a stripper. My student was stunned.

My student refrained from ever asking her roommate about her job.

My student told the story of the day she was getting ready to go to out when the roommate arrived home.

“Great dress,” the roommate said to my student.

“Dress?” my student said. “This is a blouse.”

Shortly afterwards, my student was able to get assigned to another housing situation.