By MEG DEMARSH AND STORY SCHWANTES
Meg DeMarsh ’19 and Story Schwantes ’19 were randomly-assigned first-year roommates, and they have remained friends since. They started this column with the hope to explore the retrospective narratives of seniors and their first-year roommates: the shenanigans, the love, and everything in between.
This week features Jonathan Hanahan ’19 and Ty Christensen ’19, who were first-year roommates in 2 South. Friends throughout all four years, they now live together in the senior cottages.
The Catalyst: What were your first impressions of each other?
Ty Christensen: My first thought was, “Yeah, he’s way different than I expected.”
TC: What did you expect?
TY: The only thing I knew about him was that he was a ski instructor and took a gap year. And I don’t know; I just wasn’t expecting Yonie [Hanahan]. He did look a little dorky at first, and then I was like, ‘Oh, alright, sick.’
Jonathan Hanahan: Yeah, that seems right. I just remember when Ty came in the first time he was really confused. I established myself in the room, right? And then he came in and I was like, ‘Oh, this is my roommate,’ and he was just like, ‘Wait, is this the right room?’
TY: Definitely caught off guard a bit.
JT: It quickly improved.
TC: Any fun stories?
TY: There were definitely wacky times in our room —
TC: Were you ever written up?
TY: Ah yes. I think we were both written up just once.
JT: Yeah, because I got written up a time you weren’t there, and you got written up a time I escaped.
TY: The time he escaped, I was studying in one of those study rooms [in South Hall]. I see like 15 people, including Yonie and everyone from our hall, just leave out of our room. And I was like, ‘What in the world is happening?’And I was pretty sure it was Wednesday, too. Went back in my room, and [the RA] was just outside my door. She goes, ‘There were some beer games being played in your room. I can’t find Jon right now. So I need your Gold Card and I need you to dump everything.’ And I was like, ‘Wait I wasn’t even here.’ And she was like, ‘You’re the only one I could find. It’s going to have to be you.’
JT: I just walked outside with everyone else.
TC: Did you feel bitter?
TY: The thing was, not really. At first, I was like, ‘Oh wow, this really sucks.’ When I went to go talk to [the RLC], he was like, ‘Alright, I’ll see you later.’ He was just so chill about it.
JT: I can explain the other story … I wasn’t actually written up in our room. It was in —
TY: It was in the study room!
JT: Probably the same study room where Ty was working! Essentially it was Halloween night, 3 a.m., everything was quiet; everyone was asleep. And [some friends] and myself were all in the study room with a bong, smoking. And 30 minutes into it, two RAs are peering through the window, like, ‘What are you guys doing?’
TC: And then you got written up?
JT: Yep, pretty much. [Laughs.] I went to see [the RLC], and you know those posters they have at the end of the hall? She wanted me to put up a poster, like an anti-marijuana poster, and I was like, “Ok cool.” And anyway, I totally forgot about it.
TC: So you never had to do it?
JT: No, I never had to do it.
TC: Do you guys love each other?
TY: Yeah, I’d say that.
JT: Brother from another mother!