I am back on campus and I have a roommate. His name is JD. My last roommate was JT. JD has blonde hair and blue eyes. JT had blonde hair and blue eyes. JT has just gotten back from his mission. JD has just gotten back from his mission. JD and JT also both gone to school here before their missions. Both also have gotten girl friends shortly after returning to campus. JD, however, is quite the guy. He's turned out to be a friend as well as a collage. JT, didn't. Either way, both have accomplished in weeks (JD only one week) what I have yet to do since one year ago when I came back to school and first met JT.
I never did spend much time with my old roommate, but I hang out with JD quite a bit. JD is an RM, but he is a greenie again - a greenie to life. It is not too bad, but I see it manifest itself in different ways.
The first night we were really both free and hanging out as roommates I was about to go to bed because I was so tired. Then JD came up to me and asked me to go with him and some friends to the beach. It was late and I wasn't interested. Then I looked at his eyes. He wasn't just offering; he wanted me to go. He had not had a date since the mish and didn't want to be with a girl on the beach at night without some "safe" company. I was about to oblige when we went with another invite for card with Fei, Su, Reed and miscellaneous other friends in the circle.
A couple of days ago we were at dinner with a friend of mine from Vietnam whom we call Anna. Her real name is Ngoc. She is the only person I know who can say her name, so Anna is the nom deplore. Once JD found out that she wasn't a member of the church but had taken the discussions from the missionaries before, he jumped right in. Next thing I know, I had total deja vu. It felt like my companion had his principal and I was just waiting for my turn to testify then teach mine. He committed her to pray about the gospel again. And, he used the direct "will you". Anna is no stranger to the commitment pattern. I doubt that she knows all the steps or phrases we use, but I could tell by her face that it sounded all too familiar to her. JD persevered and finished his thoughts and kept the spirit there as best as he could.
The other day we wanted to go shopping in Windward Mall in Kaneohe. We don't have transportation so we took The Bus. I brought 2 sets of headphones and a splitter so we could both listen at the same time. We did not get much use out of them. JD was busy making "GQ's" which means Golden Questions. That is missionary lingo for street contacting for investigators. On the way back he got so much of a conversation going with some locals on one side of The Bus that others joined the conversation. So next thing I know, I slipped back into "missionary mode" and was practically teaching the first discussion to the guy on my side while he was doing the same to the guys on his. I admit is was somewhat fun. And the best part was that I could watch movies and listen to music afterwards. Heck, if I had a girl friend, I could hang out with her afterwards. JD did.
JD is the beau of Leslie currently. Leslie is actually not her real name, but it's hard for us ha'oles to say Chinese names right. I met her one of her first days here on campus a semester ago. All she remembers is that I showed her a pic of my ex, Fei. I swear it was a natural progression in conversation at the time. She thinks it was odd but funny.
What is funny is that my greenie to life is already farther along than I am, and I was home for a missions worth of time by the time that he STARTED his.
It is interesting to see the experience of people readjusting to regular life again. It will be 4 years come December since I got home and I have all but forgotten what that is like. When I see him hesitating to spend too much alone time with a girl or try so hard to give out a Book of Mormon on the Bus I think it is somewhat funny that he seems to forget that he is free. Then I see how happy he is, how things seem to be working for him, and how much others tend to gravitate to him because of the stature of person that he is.
Maybe he is not the one that needs to readjust after all. Maybe it's me...
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