No one expected her to be Charizard. For a while, we thought everyone’s personality matched their character. One suitemate played Kirby— he ate more than anyone I had ever met before (I’m talking 4 plates of chicken tenders and a bucket of duck sauce). I played Captain Falcon because, obviously. One suitemate was Pikachu because…actually he just liked to spam down-b. Still! Charizard is a big ol’ fire breathing dragon. This quiet girl was very much not a Charizard. But nonetheless, she walked into the suite, took a seat on the middle of the futon and began to blaze the battlefield as a giant orange dragon.
Everyone plays Super Smash Bros.— guys, girls, Frocos, crushes. It was the first thing that cemented our group of disparate friends into a family. This J.E. Family group started small. First it was a suite of guys, controllers in hand, bonding over the unexplored territory of Freshman year. Then the girls, whose suite connected to ours, joined the family as we connected over the unpredictable joys of living with strangers. From early afternoon games to 4 am study breaks, Super Smash Bros. was our first common link. It opened the doorway to a series of friendships that have stuck through every 4th place loss and every 1st place victory that college brings.
If there is anything that Yale has taught me, it is the value and necessity of community. Whether it’s a theater community, an acapella group, an athletic team or a group of kids playing Smash Bros., you’ll often find that you will stumble into your community without even realizing it. We share suites, we share meals, we share life stories and late nigh heart-to-hearts. We go to each other’s shows and edit each other’s essays. Sometimes we fight; sometimes we brawl, but I’m not lying when I say that all of them are the loves of my life. Every family starts in one way or another. Ours started with a videogame <3
