Room-mate Horror Story

One vote for college room-mate stories!

When I was in college, I was saturated with college "culture" (and I use that term very loosely). My room-mates filled all the college stereotypes. The one who stayed out drinking until 2 a.m. and then brought her 6 friends back to our tiny dorm room, Burger King in tow, flipping on the light switch and partying until dawn - all while I was trying to sleep in my bunk. The one who left a "hint" on the door which suggested I should not enter, but I did anyway and she and her boyfriend . . .uh, you get the picture. The ones with whom I went out drinking, after which they had to drag me home. (Hey, I'm not proud of those moments, I'm just saying. . . .)

Believe it or not, those are the least colorful room-mate stories I have. You would probably assume that the stories I have about living with Christian room-mates would be pretty dull in comparison. That couldn't be farther from the truth.

This one is my "favorite" (and I use that term loosely, too, although I really can laugh about this now. . . .after 15 years of therapy). One summer I lived with 2 other young women whom I will call "Kathy" and "Debbie".

Kathy was an extremely devout Catholic girl who spent several hours a day in prayer. She still wore a hat to church, even though Vatican II had, 40 years prior, deemed that it was unnecessary. She went to confession on a regular basis - at least weekly, if not more. She often gave random confessions to us, her room-mates, thinking that she needed to be as transparent as possible to attain holiness. And she freely corrected us in our sinfulness.

Debbie was the polar opposite. She was deeply involved with a Vineyard church, which contains elements of Spirit-filled Pentecostal churches and Bible-based Evangelical churches. Debbie was very expressive of her faith. When it came to worship, she was practically an acrobat. Did I mention that she was VERY (extremely, maybe) expressive in all faith matters? Debbie regularly asked us to pray over her and especially asked us to pray against evil spirits that were trying to attack her in a variety of ways.

I do not wish to paint either woman as a freak or a fruitcake. Both women were quite zealous and quite sincere. Both spiritualities have merit, but never in my life have I met two more mismatched people. (If they ever got married and had families, I would love to see a Wife Swap episode starring these 2 women.)

And I had to live with them. For a whole summer.

Needless to say, there was some "tension" in our apartment as these women neither understood nor respected each other's spirituality. Kathy would be trying to pray - in her room, with the door closed - and she would come out and chide Debbie for making too much noise by breathing too loud or some such offense. When it was Debbie's turn to pray, she would turn on some rockin' worship music and bring the house down.

Well, legend has it that, one weekend, while I was gone (thankfully), Kathy was having serious issues with Debbie. So serious that she decided, in the middle of the night, to wake Debbie and have a sober discussion with her. And what was the content of that conversation? Kathy told Debbie that she (Debbie) was the Antichrist.

Wow.

And Kathy was dead serious - she wasn't just pissed off or annoyed with Debbie. She really believed she had sensed that Debbie had the spirit of Antichrist in her.

It's pretty hard to wrap up this post. What more can I say about this outlandish episode? Let's just say I was very grateful when that summer came to an end.