rantage about college life (loooong)

Honestly, one of the things I hated about living in girls’ dorms was the fact that nobody would address problems directly until things reached a boiling point, and in this case it sounds like they will, because your suitemate probably doesn’t have the social skills necessary to pick up on hints. I can see why you wouldn’t want to talk to her directly about the body odor thing, but asking her to do the laundry, politely but firmly, shouldn’t be too hard on anyone.

As for Bobotim, well, I’m trying to tread carefully here because I don’t share your religious beliefs, but it’s safe to say that everybody does stuff that tests their personal standards sometimes, especially in the first couple of months of college. Even if it leads to a few uncomfortable moments along the way, it’s a process that has to happen; it’s how people grow up and learn about themselves. A few twinges of regret are OK, but don’t beat yourself up over it.

As I don’t share your religious or personal beliefs, I cannot understand fully your dilemma. But, I would advise you to do as I tell my students:

Just be comfortable.

Sometimes you won’t know what your comfort level is until you have some experiences under your belt, so to speak. You should not feel as though you have let yourself down. You had an experience and can learn something valuable from it.

Simply think of it as your way of establishing boundaries. Now, having had the experience with Bob/Tim, you know what NOT to do. You know that, as a young woman, you will have certain feelings, but that you don’t have to act on them.

You know where the lines are drawn in your world, and so in the future, will make the best possible decision in regard to personal relationships with men.

As I stated above, I don’t quite understand how your rules work in your world :), since I am not religious (or young, for that matter), but I applaud you for thinking about what is best for you. I applaud you for thinking about what is important to you. And I applaud you for having the courage of your convictions.

Good luck and take care.

I’m not sure what to tell you about the roommate situation. Obviously you can’t be her mom for her, but at the same time you can’t let her live in her own filth. It sounds like you guys are sensitively working with her, though, so I guess I would advise you to keep on keepin’ on.

About the guy situation, I would advise you to stay out of situations where that sort of thing is likely to happen again. Talk to him online, interact with each other with groups of people around–that kind of thing. If you think you’ll jump each other the next time you’re alone together, then don’t be alone together.

(BTW, it’s interesting that you would post this right now. I think I may be sort of in the early stages of a similar relationship, and your OP sort of made things a bit clearer for me. Thanks.)

At any rate, I’ll be sure to pray for all of you. Best wishes.

You are the first Christian I have encountered who considers kissing to be a big deal.

I feel for you re the messy roomie. It doesn’t sound like you are having much fun. Do you drink? Guess not, huh. Well, I can’t help you out much with college then. Oh, and what Glory said!

well, lots to respond about.

Medea, sorry if I didn’t make this clear. My conviction about not wanting to get physically involved is very much a byproduct of my own thoughts, experiences, observations, and feelings, not just my religion. Religion is just one of the factors, but yes, an important one.

Were it the only factor, I’m sure I would break it. Religion aside, that kind of thing just isn’t for me right now - too many ramifications, possiblities, emotional things that aren’t going to get filled by making out or having sex outside of a committed relationship. The struggle is that my body wants things sometimes the the rest of me doesn’t - and I think that’s just part of being human, part of my being a Christian - that sometimes we want things that aren’t good for us to have and so we don’t go after them. We were designed to respond to sexual stimuli, and that’s a wonderful thing that I’m know I’m going to be thankful for someday, but for now it just makes doing what I decided on hard sometimes.

I think the guilt thing comes less than “I broke a rule” than from “I did something I said I didn’t want to do right now, in this context. I very nearly did even more.” I definitely agree with Medea:

My problem was not getting lost just once or twice in a moment, my problem was having the wrong focus for a while. Keeping in mind what I do want and not what I don’t is really hard for me, something I have to work on lots, and I definitely ran in the wrong direction there.

Bobotim is a very good name for this guy! Too bad his name isn’t either of those or I might have had to use it on him.

I appreciate the encouragement and words of wisdom, especially from these last few posts.

Best of luck, Super Gnat. It would help a bit if I knew I helped someone else avoid a similar mistake.

I realize I am unique in a lot of my convictions. I don’t know too many people that think about kissing, or music, or any number of other things quite the way I do (in fact, probably none that thinks alike on all, but just a few who agree on a few different things). I’m ok with that. At least I know why I believe what I do, instead of following whatever I’m told, right or wrong.

I am having a lot of fun here. I was just having a horrible time of it between the incident and when I posted, and not the whole time even. No illegal fun for me, but I am still having a blast - I don’t regret choosing this U in the slightest.

Yes, but when you knew him in a nonromantic way, you wanted different things from him. You didn’t need to be able to trust him, and you weren’t investing so much emotion in him.

**

:confused: Why is it okay that he let (made) you cry?

Well, I hope so too. I’ll ditto iampunha’s suggestion. My e-mail’s in my profile; just be sure to put “SDMB” in the header.

On room/suitemates: You four have got to get along together for an extended period (all year? till semester break?), and honesty in a friendly context is all important there. There’s only so much a person can take – how much depends on the person – and when he/she gets to that point, it takes the form of an eruption. It’s better to let the pressure off in a controlled fashion. Consider getting a four-woman heart-to-heart going some evening, and talking out the problems, and why they’re distrbing. (And be open to the possibility that you too have a mannerism or two that gratees on them as much as what they do grates on you.) I’m certain that Ms. Smellie would be much happer knowing that she has to improve personal hygiene, said in friendship by her roomies, than spending four years ostracized by most of the people she meets and not knowing why.

And compromise is key here. You’re four folks from four different places, with different life styles – and you have to find a modus vivendi that will keep you from clawing out each other’s throats sometime between now and May. You’re not compromising principles; you’re adjusting habits to make living together pleasant rather than stressful. (BTW, consider that as preparation for marriage; you won’t believe the strange things your husband thinks are perfectly normal until about a week after the honeymoon, when his and your agendas will clash bigtime, and on something you never thought of, no matter how thoroughly you talked it out!)

On Bobotim: Your body, your choices. But there are elements of who you are that you have never confronted – trust me; I know myself pretty well, and I keep finding them at age 54! Contrary to comments above, I think he intends to respect your limits, but you both found yourself afflicted with a bad case of the hots, and reacted accordingly.

One of the larger problems I have with conservative Christian teachings is that there seems to be an underlying assumption that God made a major mistake creating us with sexuality. Apparently, by their theories we should have been like baboons, with women having buttocks that turn blue when they’re fertile and neither sex having any interest in sex the rest of the time.

In one of his books C.S. Lewis points out that a piece of God’s intricate design is in having something physical underlie and support the spiritual virtue that it is related to. Humans are built to be in couples, loving comforting, intimate twosomes. Always-on sexual desire makes one want that bond, helps to sustain it when he/she’s being totally insufferable, ensures that couples stay together and loving – and of course provides for the continuation of humanity for another generation as well.

But, as you’ve discovered, it’s fairly easy to activate that turn-on mechanism, even in circumstances where what you wanted was something slightly different – being held by someone familiar when you’re 3,000 miles away from home for the first time and a touch homesick being a reasonable “something slightly different.”

Don’t be judging yourself – that’s how a loving God built you to react when in intimate circumstances with an attractive young man. (BTW, Paul is good reading on temptation, but remember that he was something of a gynophobe, and it shows in his writings, inspired or not.)

The idea of talking frankly by e-mail or IM with Bobotim is not a bad one – and your being honest with yourself that you enjoyed it and in some ways want to do it again (despite having exceeded your self-set limts) is a good thing. (My point from last month about finding a sympathetic faculty member to talk with remains a good one – somewhere on that campus is somebody who recognizes that healthy young college students are going to have sexual desires and who is equipped to help them deal with them within the limits they set as good Christian young people.)

And, my friend, this is only the start of eye-openers – you’ve got four years of learning new and different things about life and about yourself. Have fun! :slight_smile:

Just out of curiosity, I noted your location of “Ark-in-saw,” and that you’re 3000 miles from home. Using the span of my fingers to estimate 3000 miles on a map of the world on my wall, I come up with such diverse locations as Valdez, Alaska; Repulse Bay, Nunavut, Canada; La Paz, Bolivia; or about 800 miles short of Hawaii. All exotic locales, but as I said, for idle curiosity, and fully realizing that 3,000 may be rounding up a bit, from whence did you move to Arkansas for school?

ah, Polycarp, thanks for the wisdom! Now I know all the more why I missed the SDMB in the couple weeks I needed to adjust to college life! I think I agree with your theory about Bobotim and why it happened than with some of the above posts.

Paul really is excellent for times likie this - Romans 6-8 has been my come-back-to over and over passage for the past couple years, I guess since I discovered how "pleasureable’ a lot of sin is. I’m also glad you brought up the “your body is designed to do that” point - I know it is, I just didn’t plan on waking that part up for a while. I guess I missed that boat a while back though. But, garsh, I hate it when Christians think couples aren’t supposed to enjoy sex… I can tell you right now I fully enjoy on having a blasted good time when I am married!

It’s not OK that I needed to cry, but it’s not as if he was out to hurt me. He didn’t have to listen for as long as he did. Also, he really tried to find out what exactly was bugging me, and gave some personal examples and things to help out. That was more than some jerk who was just out to get his rocks off would have done once we agreed to never ever let it happen again.

I appreciate the offers to talk one-on-one with people. I emailed punha and it basically read like poorly written, prematurely cut off smut. if anyone is still really really interested in the details of the saga, feel free to email me (address in profile).

Ravenman, sorry to disappoint, but I am originally from Washington State. not quite as cool as some of those other places - and perhaps more like 2500 miles. I’m not too sure.

Not sure if I should be bumping this or starting a new thread, but more re: the Bobotim situation.

I must say, I’m stupid. We’ve started messing around, even moreso than in the OP. That was Monday, but it was a long time in coming. I don’t know quite how to feel about it - I’m kind of devoid of emotion right now - no guilt, no happiness, no sadness, no anger, no anything. I don’t know if I should have done it, or if I should again, or anything.

Just wanted to say, I’m even dumber than I was in the OP. I’m not really asking for advice, because I don’t know that there is any kind of advice to be given, but any thoughts are welcome.

Poly, your above post seems even more relevant right now. Thanks.

Update on other stuff: Stinky isn’t too stinky anymore and seems to be occupying herself with other stuff outside of the room. My roomie and I are still getting along alright, though we bug each other occasionally. I’d still say I got off a lot luckier than many did in that regard.

I’m still looking for that “sympathetic faculty member” to talk with - or rather, looking for the courage to approach a couple that I think would be very understanding. I’m also trying to find students that I can talk about this Bobotim thing with - I’ve only told like two people here the story up until this week, and one of them what’s happened this week. I’ve got a few prospects, and don’t get me wrong, I love my friends!) but as far as sharing this sort of thing goes I’m still a little lonely.

Thanks for listening, everyone. Feel free to IM/Email for any detail.

Did you need a LiveJournal code? 'Cause I’d be happy to give you a LiveJournal code. I think a LiveJournal code would be a good thing, don’t you? Yeah, gotta love those LiveJournal codes…

Esprix

Get away from BoboTim. Now.

I’ve always wondered how boys/girls that had no romantic interests in middle school or high school coped when they got to college.

Thanks to this thread, all is now revealed.

LifeInHIM86, most of the people I knew while growing up found themselves in your position, asking your questions, at age 13 or 14. Somehow, these things were simpler to deal with at that age than they seem to be for you to deal with at college.

Hope you get it all worked out to your satisfaction.

Esprix… um, yeah. maybe that would be a good idea. (BTW, you do rock. I spent a LOT of time lurking in the ATGG threads.) I appreciate the offer.

Forgive me everybody if I’ve been very annoying with this… I’ll stop now.

JCoM - I had my share of romantic interests when I was younger - just haven’t dated in the past few years, and didn’t do any fooling around at that age. I wouldn’t say my questions are quite the same as those asked by most young teenagers, as they usually just ask if they should mess around, and how much, with the people they have crushes on. My confusion is more a matter of whether a friends-with-benefits situation can work or not. But whatever, you don’t really care.

Well, I think your new development may turn out to be a very good thing.

When I was about your age I started throwing off the shackles of a 2000 year old ideology that had gripped me for most of my life, and one of the things that opened my eyes to my situation was a conflict between what I wanted to do (and knew would be OK for me to do) and what a bunch of guys that have been dead for 2000 years told me to do.

Bobotim may just be your Morpheus, girly-girl! Now go give 'im a big kiss!

Life, it does sound like Bobotim is a nice guy, and that he genuinely likes and cares about you. I gotta tell you, though: it sounds for all the world like he wants very much to take you to bed, and my guess would be he’s not fighting that desire as much as you might imagine. (So I suppose I’m somewhat more pessimistic on this count than Poly.) This wouldn’t make him a bad guy, but if you’re sure that you’re not ready for that sort of thing, you should stop seeing him altogether. Since you yourself clearly have a functioning sex drive, it will keep getting “moreso” and moreso, until there’s no moreso to go.

As for your roommate/suitemate situation, it will tend get better as college progresses. The more experience people have living in close quarters, the more considerate they become about it. Generally.

Good luck, and don’t worry. Everything’s fine.

If I didn’t care I wouldn’t have spent the time it took to read and respond to your thread.

See ya’.

JCoM, sorry if that came off snitty! I didn’t mean it quite that way. My apologies for not thinking about how that would read.

TaxGuy, thanks but no thanks. I have reasons besides religious ones that I don’t want to have sex right now. Even if I did, Bobotim isn’t interested in that right now (anything short of intercourse though, well, I can’t say he’s not interested, but that still doesn’t mean he wants to), nor do I “like” him in a romantic way.

VarlosZ, you’re probably right, and you can say “I told you so” if you hear me come back whining because I again did something with him that I didn’t plan to. Right now, I don’t know what I want to do, so it’s probably a good thing that I haven’t talked to him since… Monday? yeah. It’s been weeks since this affair started and I still can’t decide if he’s a jerk or not - but I do want to keep at least some form of a friendship, even if we don’t talk much, but I would like to be able to talk and hang out. Cuddling with him is nice, though I don’t know that we can safely do that anymore - no, I know we can’t do that anymore, I’ve known that since the incident in the OP. Meh, I don’t know what I’m saying anymore.

So, you’re a freshman far away from home dealing for the first time with the complexities of life as it happens compared to life as you have sorted it out according to your belief system. Sounds to me like you’re right on schedule.

In fact, it sounds pretty familiar to me, although I think we probably have pretty different belief systems. My freshman year involved being far away from home, dealing with room- and dorm-mates of uncertain habits, and those very complicated questions about men and what to do when when what I want to do isn’t what I want to do. And it is.

Don’t beat up on yourself, this is where you are getting the life experience that will enable you to make good decisions for the rest of your adult life. Expect that you will make a few mistakes. Learn from them. One of the things you should learn is that you arte not perfect and that you will make mistakes. Another thing you may learn is that when you have very strong feelings about someone, you may be having those feeling for a reason. The reason may or may not be what you expect. Trying to pre-judge what you will learn is not the best way to learn it.

I’m not telling you to go for it with Bobotim, or to drop him like a hot potato. That is your decision, and only your decision. Part of being an adult is respecting your own autonomy ion those matters, and I’m not saying you don’t. I’m also not saying it’s easy. I made a lot of man-related mistakes in college, but I don’t think that I would give most of them up. One for sure, but not the rest.

I found that my belief system changed pretty dramatically during my college years, you may find that yours deepens and gains depth and texture. This will probably have more to do with the mistakes you make than the easy times when everything goes right.