University of St. Thomas

A day in the life of... A resident of the Catholic Women’s Floor
Dowling Hall
By Elizabeth Jamison

Life on the Catholic Women’s Floor is a blast…I most enjoy the supportive environment of having other women who can hold me accountable and challenge me to grow more in love with our Lord each day. Truly, the floor is conducive to encouraging growth, not only spiritually, but also academically and socially. Although there are things that I do each day, there is no “typical day” for me…so, I will guide you through a Wednesday—April 2nd, 2008—in my shoes.

Talent Show Night in Dowling Hall!

Wednesday—April 2nd:

I wake up to “A Little Bit of Life” by Craig Morgan by my cell phone’s alarm at 6:15 am. Wanting to squeeze in a few more Z’s, I go back to sleep for 10 more minutes, before finally getting up. I head to our communal bathroom to brush my teeth where I run into one of my hallmates, Jenny, and I start chatting with her for a few minutes. At 6:50 am, Jenny, Meghan, Kathleen and I leave our floor to walk over to the beautiful Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas for daily mass at 7 am. As today is the 2nd anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s death, Jenny and I stay a few minutes after to say an extra prayer at a side chapel which bears our late Holy Father’s image. 

Jenny and I walk to the cafeteria, I tell her that I am really hoping that they are serving fried eggs. To my delight, fried eggs were on the menu for the day, I was pretty excited. There we met up with the other girls from our floor who we had gone to mass with, and shared funny stories about different jokes people had played a day earlier for April Fool’s Day.

 I head to Koch Commons for my hour of adoration from 8 am until 9 am: there are 4 of us praying inside the small chapel. I pray the luminous mysteries of the rosary and continuing reading an amazing George Weigel book, Letters to a Young Catholic, that I checked out from the Catholic Studies library. Then, when 9 am rolls around, I walk over to South Campus for my first class of the day, Math 100. Today’s lesson deals with probability and predicting the odds of a particular outcome on tests scores, ordering, etc.

After math class, I walk back to Murray Herrick and stop by the grill for a cappuccino. While I’m there I run into 2 friends so I stay and chat awhile before finishing up my homework for theatre class. Then I’m back at South campus for my Voice for the Stage class. Right now we are learning the American Southern dialect. It’s challenging, but very enjoyable. As easy as it can be to imitate it, a truly authentic dialect must be formed through learning how each vowel is formed within the context of different words and mastering one’s intonation pattern to that of a native speaker. It’s quite amusing to hear how different people speaking in a dialect which is not their own! Next week we will be performing short scenes from the play, Crimes of the Heart.

I then head over to the “Blue Lagoon” in Murray Herrick to catch up with my friend Brian. Then it’s back to my room for a little while, and I get a chance to hang out with my roommate Katie Pauly. Katie is from Hinckley, MN and is studying Social Work. It’s great having a roommate, it’s like having a sister…which coming from a family in which I only have one sibling—a brother, is quite a change, but a fun one! I’m a little hungry, so I make myself a quick lunch in the room. After chatting with Katie, I take a shower and get ready for work.

I am a student worker at the Center for Catholic Studies, Sitzmann Hall, so I head over there at 4 pm to take over the reception desk. On any given day of work, I might make copies for a professor, clean up the computer room, run an errand to the bookstore or library, do a little database entry, make phone calls to prospective students, but the part I enjoy the most is greeting and talking to all the people who work at Sitzmann as well as those students, graduate and undergraduate who come in during my shift. (I work Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 1 ½ hours per week) Having a job on campus has been a real treat for me this year and I’ve gotten to know many of the Catholic Studies professors and staff through work.

At 6:15 pm, I close up Sitzmann and head back to my dorm to study for a little while. This semester I am acting in a student-directed production of Antigone set to run Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26, so I typically have rehearsal most nights at the Foley theatre, but tonight happens to be my night off! During rehearsals, we have been busy learning stage combat for an opening battle scene and doing blocking. So, after studying and checking my e-mail, I head off to Coffee Bene with my friend Alex, and then we head over to the Koch fireside room for a talk by Catholic Studies professor Dr. Kennedy and Theology professor Dr. Nichols. The talk, sponsored by Catholic Witness, is on immigration: the complex history of immigrants in the United States and what the Church teaches about how immigrants can best be protected from exploitation and maintain their human rights, even while living here undocumented.

Like I said, every night is different. On Tuesdays I volunteer at CLUES (Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio), helping Hispanics from the twin cities find jobs through the use of online databases and helping them create resumes. Language is one of the primary barriers that can prevent immigrants from finding jobs, so we volunteers speak to our clients at CLUES in Spanish and provide them with any translation services they need.

I spend weekends doing everything from swing dancing to trying new restaurants with friends to kicking back and watching a movie. While some people do choose to go home on the weekends, plenty of girls stick around and enjoy St. Thomas weekends. The weekends are also a great time to get studying done, do laundry, and go running! I am fortunate that St. Thomas’ campus is within a beautiful neighborhood and right by the Mississippi River, it’s terrific! I also use the weekend to catch up with my friends and family back home in Indiana.

My hallmates and I go to the Sunday night dinners frequently at the Catholic Men’s House on Summit Avenue, and sometimes we even help prepare dinner! As a floor, we’ve done clothing swaps, movie nights, a day of reflection/retreat, and were involved in a talent show act where we choreographed and sang a rendition of “Summer Nights” from Grease with “Soulja Boy” and “Undignified” too. Samantha Vosters, our Resident Advisor, always knows fun stuff going on around campus and helps plan a lot of events for our floor, and is also a great friend to all of us.

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed following me around for a day. Living on the floor has been a blessing to me this year, and I encourage you to come up and visit us on 6 North sometime if you get a chance. The Catholic Women’s Floor really is about the people…women living purposefully to build up the Kingdom of God.