47 Kathi Kern

When I was a young lass of 18, I packed my bags and headed off to Allegheny College. I was pretty excited about the whole college experience. What would my classes be like? What would my dorm be like? And most of all what would my roommate be like?

In those days they sent you the name and address of your roommate ahead of time, so you could exchange letters beforehand. I guess they might have given a phone number too, but I only remember the letters.  My roommate was named Kathi Kern.

Right off the bat, things got interesting because even though I lived in Ohio and she lived in Pennsylvania, her boyfriend’s step-sister was friends with one of my childhood friends who now lived in New York. I can’t imagine how we possibly figured this out in letters, but I guess we had some pretty solid letter-writing skills, and not much else to do but expound on our lengthy 18-year history. Also, there were so many fewer people on the planet back then, that practically everyone knew everyone else.

So there we were writing our hearts out and making important plans like who would bring the record player (Kathi) who would bring the curtains (probably also Kathi) and who would bring the mini fridge (no-one because they weren’t invented yet.)

Finally the big day arrived. Kathi and I moved into our dorm room. We both brought our guitars and our John Denver playbooks. We both had the same yellow “Bach Sonata” T-shirt. And (as it turned out) we had both lied on our roommate survey and claimed we were allergic to smoke, because we were both that committed to having a non-smoking roommate.

In short, we were perfect for each other!

Why do I love Kathi Kern?

She is so effing smart! What other college freshman enthusiastically quotes Martin Buber?

She has bottomless energy! She knows what she wants to do and puts her heart and soul into it. She is always winning this award or that grant, because everyone knows a great thing when they see it.

She is fun to talk to! She is tuned in, interested, supportive, and real.

And the absolute best thing is she was My-Freshman-Roommate.

What an amazing way to take my first steps into adulthood. With a generous, wise, funny, smart and loving person.

Today is Kathi’s birthday! And I am celebrating the girl she was, and the woman she is.