At UChicago, every first-year student is assigned to a House inside of the dorm that they live in. Each House has their own traditions, like going on trips downtown or holding Super Bowl parties, and many Houses compete against each other in intramural sports. Looking back at my four years at UChicago, my House was how I made some of my closest friends and best college memories.
On my first day of Orientation Week at UChicago, I stood in line at check in while the guy in front of me introduced himself to me. That same day, after moving into my room, I went downstairs to my House lounge and saw him again. Coincidentally, we realized we both happened to be assigned to Cathey House in South (aka Renee Granville-Grossman) and we soon became friends. Later in the afternoon, I met a few other people, including two girls named Sabrina and Kathyrn. I still remember how we clicked right away and spent the rest of the evening hanging out together, which was the beginning of my relationship with my housemates.
Through doing everything from playing intramural dodgeball together to going on a Wednesday night trip to see an opera downtown, my House became a vital part of my first-year college experiences. During the week, I would always look forward to relaxing and watching movies with my housemates in the lounge after a long day or playing midnight soccer on the Midway. One of my favorite memories with my House was going apple picking in Indiana during Fall Quarter. Spending the day at the apple orchard and getting to know more people from Cathey was really fun, and after coming back with our bags of apples, my friends and I made batches of apple cider in the House kitchen for a study break.
The friends that I made through my House have become like my family. Even after moving out of South, I became roommates with Sabrina, Kathyrn, and a few other House friends, and we've been living together ever since. I can't imagine what UChicago would have been like without my House, and I'm so thankful for the friends that I've made because of it.