When Caught Between “Blah” and “Meh”
By Nadine Briggs and Donna Shea Even though we knew this was coming, it doesn’t make it any easier. The weather is getting colder and the days are getting shorter…
By Nadine Briggs and Donna Shea
My son (Nadine’s), Trent is a college junior and he rented an on-campus apartment with 3 other guys this year. Three of the four roommates moved in two weeks before the last guy because of preseason sports and other commitments. The 4th roommate is from Paraguay and I visit the day before his arrival. 
Flags decorated the walls of the main living space with each flag representing one the guys who lives there. There is a Red Sox flag for the baseball fan, police flag for the criminal justice majors, corvette flag for the car enthusiast and a huge blank stretch of wall. The blank space was prime real estate next to the TV in the living room. It begged the question, what’s going in that space? My son explained, “Oh, we all saved that for the Paraguayan flag. Our final roommate is from Paraguay so we saved that space for his flag. We wanted to surprise him so we ordered a Paraguayan flag online. There is more than one kind of Paraguayan flag so we stalked his Facebook page to see if there was a picture of one that he had posted. We finally found one and ordered that one. We plan to hang it on the wall and surprise him with it when he gets here tomorrow. We’re also going to clean up the place.”
These three college students took the time to find the right flag and welcome the last roommate to his new home. They thought of someone else, relinquished the best space, and showed kindness, pure and simple.
