<om draw numbers came out this week. I was sitting in the Libe, studying for an exam (number two of the week!), when suddenly the library broke into a furor. I’d completely forgotten (somehow...), but it was the night that room draw numbers had been released. It was 12:01 AM.
I figured I’d just check it in a little while, but after ten minutes of not-really-productive studying, my curiosity got the best of me and I tried to log into the Hub. No dice – I got an error message saying that the Hub had crashed. I spent the next ten minutes waging what I knew to be a pointless war against the Hub, refreshing the page, then pretending to study, then refreshing the page, etc. etc. Finally, at 12:21 AM, the loading icon appeared instead of the red error message, and my heart jumped. Which was stupid, because I wasn’t expecting a good number (I miraculously had a good one sophomore year and generally, I just don’t tend to be extremely lucky in these types of situations). But either way, I wanted to see what I got.
“What are you predicting?” asked my study partner, who had also (unsuccessfully) been trying to check his room draw number.
“Oh, I don’t know…probably something low…in the 300s or something.”
My screen loaded, blinking into existance. Not a good number. Damn. But although I was able to go back to studying after about ten solid minutes of talking to people about room draw, the buzz remained well into the next day, and even into today (it’s Thursday evening as I write this). Despite the fact that room draw isn’t for four months. I had another midterm (oh hey, physics), so I pretended not to notice or obsess over room draw, but I did – and I know everyone else did too. “If I tank my midterm,” said my study partner, “I’m blaming room draw.”
Yes, we know that room draw is extremely important, and that it’s important to have it early enough that everyone finds a roommate and works out housing. But let’s be honest – is it really necessary to cause that kind of furor in the middle of fifth week, prime midterm time?
I’d answer that, but I have to go study for another midterm. And obsess about room draw some more.