Out of the front door, dressed in her student nurse’s uniform, bounced a second year student who greeted and ushered us up the residence stairs into the visitors’ room (Grey Room) on the main floor. A small group of nervous looking young women was already gathered there, hesitantly sipping glasses of punch and nibbling on chocolate chip cookies. Other second year students in uniform were also there to welcome us. Alice rushed up to hug me and with a big grin said quietly: “I’ll introduce you to my friends and show you around when this is over.” After about half an hour the room was filled with giggling, whispering and generally uncomfortable young women waiting for what was to happen next. I had had no idea how comforting it would be to know Alice was there for me.
Soon enough the House Mother arrived, welcomed us, made a few preliminary remarks and then announced our room assignments, room mates and introduced us to our Big Sisters. Room mates were assigned randomly, she explained; learning to live with a stranger would teach us to build interpersonal skills, learn to socialize, negotiate and co-operate with others. All were important skills for student nurses to acquire. Assuming that we’d master these skills in first year as we cultivated friendships and identified best friends, we’d be allowed to choose our room mate for our second year in residence. My room mate was Annie.
Each second year student was also randomly paired with an incoming student who was to be her Little Sister. For the entire first year, the Big Sister was to watch out for the new student: counsel her, comfort her when things got difficult, encourage her when she felt like giving up, and just generally help her navigate the experience of being a first year nursing student. My Big Sister, Zoe, welcomed me warmly and became my pal from that day on. It didn’t hurt that Zoe was also one of Alice’s friends.
In her opening remarks, our House Mother, a matronly woman who lived in an apartment on site, announced that her role was to oversee the operations of the residence and to keep an eye on us. She meant to keep us safe by ensuring we followed the house rules, and most importantly, that we obeyed curfew: 11 pm on weeknights and 12:30 am on weekends. She carefully monitored the sign-out book which all students were required to complete on departure from, and return to, the building so she would know if anyone was not safely back in residence. She assured us she took her nightly 11pm bed check very seriously: she owed it to our parents to make sure their daughters were home in bed when they were supposed to be. As soon as the official welcome was over, Zoe began a whispered explanation that the rules were easily broken and how those curfews especially, could be disobeyed without “getting caught.”
