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Getting Closer in Krzyzewskiville

Jan 25, 2008

Josh Stillman, a Duke freshman from Cary, is camping out for the UNC game on March 8. He is writing about his experiences for WRAL.com.

There’s a certain, unique quality to the relationships that form when people are forced to live uncomfortably close together.

The tent has done a good job of making that extremely clear. Instead of sharing a small, albeit cozy, dorm room with one person,12 people occupy a single oversized burlap sack. That, and the fact that I’d never met half the people I’d be spending the next three months lying on top of, gave me a few reservations. But what’s college for if not a time for making friends?

The introductions started off well, in my opinion:

“Hi, I’m Josh. I’ll be spending five nights a week cuddling with you for warmth. What’s your name?”

Interactions were deliberately polite at first, the kind when you wave to someone you vaguely recognize so you don’t feel like a jerk. But as the days went on, and we began to be all too familiar with the way each other looked and behaved without any kind of civilized amenities, a real bond began to form. Full sentences, even whole conversations became common; the awkward acknowledgements faded as we spent more and more time sharing air mattresses.

Now, not an evening goes by where the group doesn’t happily mill about, talking and joking about the goings-on of the day. Just last night, we spent a good two hours trading embarrassing — and probably grossly inappropriate to anyone listening in — relationship misshaps.

In our case, proximity has bred a real intimacy. The 12 of us are on our way to becoming as tight-knit a group as there is.