O Howard, We Sing of Thee....

"Welcome to Howard University."

One of the freshmen movers noticed my sister, walked up to her, greeted her, and asked if she needed any help moving all her stuff into her dorm. She did. We all did. And as I walked with my sister, my mom, my sister's new roommate and her family into the Annex, so many memories ran through my mind. The Bethune Annex was my dorm as well freshmen year, and while B didnt move onto my floor (6th Floor East Side!!!!), she did move onto the floor of 2 people who I consider to be almost like family. In fact, Pimp C's response to me telling her which floor B was staying was, "Oh, well then she is surely destined for great things." Right. lol

I watched (and helped, but for blogging purposes, watched...) as they all scrambled to get their inventory sheets signed and pick which side of the room they wanted. I smiled when she and her roommate realized how big their room was and chuckled at how they seemed to click immediately after meeting, just like my roommate and I had.

Next we went shopping for other items she needed for her room... bed sheets, bed pad to make the XL twin feel more comfortable, bed risers (because apparently there are hard core plastic ones now so people dont buy the brick looking ones anymore...lol), mirror, bathroom essentials, alarm clock, etc... And it all seemed so familiar. Now, I will admit there were some things that I didnt remember, but some things just kept flowing into my mind. Like the first night there after my parents had left and K and I bonded while unpacking our clothes and things, joking around, listening to music, and of course discussing our love for Tupac. I remembered how we were both so excited that we both had braces and were both virgins, how we decided to host a radio show on WHBC (my name was DJ Bella) and how we became so close that year people thought we knew each other before we even got there.

I remembered how 5th Floor west side was like my second home because my best friend I came up with lived on that floor and she had introduced me to 2 girls from Chicago who seemed like perfect foils of us... the only difference was that they opted to live together, something Chica and I never did for a reason (we wanted to stay best friends, lol).

We dropped B's stuff off at her dorm and rushed to the yard for the pinning ceremony... the official welcome of Howard University to the freshmen class (of 2011... crazy, right?). Being there was so surreal, especially the part where they ask all alumni and current students to pin the freshmen. Luckily I found my sister (well my roommate found her and then found me) and I had the opportunity to pin her as well as other students looking so eager to soak up all that is the Mecca. And it did my heart proud. And I remembered my pinning ceremony and how EXCITED I was to be finally be here and how scared I was and how expectant I was and just how all these emotions and more gathered together inside of me. And I could see that in so many of their faces as well. Shoot, to be honest, I felt the same way again, but mine was for a different journey.... one into Real World job land (but I'll speak of that in another post).

Afterwards, we took B and her best friend out to dinner, and then dropped them both back off to their dorm rooms. And as my mom tried to stifle a tear, so did I, just for different reasons. A part of me longed for those days again, when your biggest concern was making sure you checked your guest out by 2 am on the weekends. Still, another part of me knew it was time to move on and use the Howard Alma Mater as my theme song....

"When from thee we’ve gone away,

May we strive for thee each day

As we sail life’s rugged sea,

O Howard, we’ll sing of thee."