Mastering the art of living with a roommate

New to college? New to the roommate life? Worried about sharing your personal space with a stranger?

Check out this article I wrote for the Freshman Survival Guide issue of The Daily Northwestern for tips on how to make it through your year with a roommate.

*Note to any former roommates: This article was based on a wide array of stories of real and fictional roommates. Any similarities to real people are merely coincidental.

What’s that construction worker doing outside the kitchen?

There’s a lot of construction going on in the Chicago area, and the blocking and closing of streets are a bit irritating.

But the other day, I saw something in the construction zone that warmed my heart.

The big, orange crane was being operated by a woman.

I saw her, with her shoulder-length auburn hair and her light blue cap-sleeved shirt, and smiled. My first reaction? You go, girl!

Maybe I’m unusual for never having seen a woman construction worker before. But seeing her here, in Evanston, outside the building where I work, made me so happy.

They say women can be anything they want to be these days–even if it’s a career that takes a woman outside the kitchen. We have women as CEOs, policemen and even presidential candidates. But women as construction workers, clergy leaders and sports journalists are all huge leaps in the direction of equality.

To the construction workers of Foster Street in Evanston: Thank you for ripping apart the street on which I will reside next year to make it safer and smoother. But the real hero of the day is that woman crane-operator: Thank you for being a role model to little girls everywhere, for echoing Rosie the Riveter’s “You Can Do It!” motto and for paving the way for women to hold any job they want.

But, if you could all just work a little faster, I’ll be able to drive a car down the street…