Three years ago, I was accepted to college. I couldn't wait to get to school and experience everything a major university could offer. My hometown was tiny and I had gone to a small, very white high school in the deep south. Even though times had certainly changed across the country, it had not changed in my town. The whites were on one side of town and the other folks were on the other side. Now don't get me wrong, I am no racist. In fact, I never really cared about any of that stuff. I thought it was stupid and very backwards. With that said, I really never was exposed to any other race or culture for that matter, so it never crossed my mind. That was about to change.
I arrived at the university and was shocked. There were more students there than the entire population of my town or even the county I lived in. The campus was massive, it even had its own bus system to get you from place to place. I was like a girl who had been teleported to a different planet. It didn't take long to find my dorm and to meet my roommate. She looked a lot like me, small, white, petite and very friendly. We hit it off quickly and decided to explore the campus. The two of us got lost a couple of times and found ourselves asking for directions almost constantly. As we explored, it dawned on me that there was a lot of diversity on campus. It seemed like my roommate and I were the minority. I had never felt that way before. It wasn't a bad feeling, just different. After a few hours, we made it back to the dorm and settled in for the night.
As it turned out, our dorm was coed. Girls on one wing, boys on the other. It really made it nice for guy watching. All you had to do was sit in the hallway and the hot guys walked by. My roommate and I made it a point to doddle in the hallway every chance we could. We flirted with every guy that walked by just to see what they would do. Many of the guys stopped and talked to us and flirted back. One of the guys was black. I am almost certain he knew that I was a small-town white girl that never had any interaction with anyone black. He made it a point to pick on me and ask me if I was afraid of him. Every time he would ask me that, he would put his hands up like the boogie man. I would always blush and tell him no and tell him to stop saying that. He would just laugh. His name was Tyrone but everyone called him Bone. I didn't know why, but I started calling him that too.
The school year began and classes started. I had the usual freshman classes, English, math, biology and an elective. Biology was my late class. It was three days a week and started at 7:50 pm and went to 9:50 pm. It was a crazy time to have a class but they did it to accommodate the students that worked during the day. I arrived at the class early to fine Bone sitting in the back. I ran up to him and asked if I could sit with him. He told me that was ok and I plopped down next to him. We started making small talk until the class started. The professor was a PhD-MD and was really smart. Half the time, he said things I didn't even understand. I tried to follow along. About half way through the class I looked at Bone and he just shook his head as if he was totally confused. The whole thing scared me. I realized college biology was going to kick my ass.
Class ended and the two of us ran out of the room. Bone walked me back to the dorm. We talked to each other like we had been friends for life. He was really nice and I felt comfortable with him. When we got back to the dorm he invited me to his room. I said ok and quietly slipped past the RA/hall monitor. Once I was in his room, we hopped onto the bed and continued or earlier conversation. We yacked and yacked and lost track of time. I told him my story, he told me his. Things just seemed perfect.