Mothers and daughters share many things: clothes, makeup, secrets from fathers and brothers, you name it.
First-year dorm rooms at college, however, typically aren’t one of them.
When Sarah Bowling, a first-year English education major at Miami University, received her room assignment in Emerson Hall, she was shocked to learn she’d be living not just in the same residence hall her mother had been in her first year, but the exact same room.
Her mother, Laura Bowling (‘94), was filled with smiles and nostalgia as she walked into her old dorm room — she remembered how her desk and bed had been arranged, marveling at how her daughter would be sleeping under the same ceiling and staring out the same window that she once did.
“It was like deja vu walking in here,” the mother said. “I couldn’t be more excited for her. My roommate and I are still good friends, and we joked that we’re gonna send [Sarah and her roommate] over to Bagel & Deli while we stay here like old times.”
Laura Bowling, who graduated from Miami with a marketing degree, looks back fondly on her time in Emerson, where she made friends and memories she still holds dearly. She noted that the dorm looked similar to when she resided there, but the room itself felt smaller, and the furniture bigger.
Sarah Bowling, who’s from Mason, Ohio, said she knew she wanted to go to Miami since she was a child.
“It was actually the only school I applied to,” she said. “When we went and toured it, they took us through Emerson and my mom made a comment like, ‘How funny would it be if you were in Emerson?’”
Despite the odd coincidence, Bowling said she didn’t request Emerson at all – the hall and room number were completely random.
Bowling said she most looks forward to the independence and opportunities to meet new people at Miami. Laura Bowling left some parting wisdom for her daughter, leaving her at the same space her own parents left her in 1990.
“Enjoy every minute of it,” Bowling told her daughter. “Meet new people, try new things. Don’t be stressed about where stuff is, or how to get to class. It all falls into place.”
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