Lately, the first thing I wake up to is my roommate’s left butt cheek from her underwear bunching up while she slides down off the top bunk making a low thud perfectly tuned to wake me out of what ever stage of sleep I’m in. I don’t mind too much because I have to get up early most days, so her butt made out to be a pretty good alarm clock. She was a pretty but average girl from Idaho that liked make-up, cheesecake and reality TV a little too much. The mean girls nick-named her Tater which she hated but some boy she gave a hand-job to at a frat party thought it was cute so she changed her tune about disliking it freshman year. She was majoring in communications and only had an early class because she forgot to register until the last day and ended up with a really horrible schedule of morning speech classes and lectures on birthing. Seriously, she had a Thursday morning class on birthing. I was perusing the text book one day before we went to dinner, that was a mistake, considering it was spaghetti night. I opted for crackers and water. Her absent-mindedness is also why we’re roommates, she forgot to go to the housing office until the last minute and I was the last one without a roommate, considering by third year most people choose their roommates, it bared a striking resemblance to being picked last for volleyball in the 6th grade all over again. Luckily we got along pretty well considering our opposite approaches to school, she let me study and nerd out on the internet watching youtube and I would disappear on Friday nights so she could “entertain”.

I had an early class on Tuesdays and Thursdays so when the butt alarm would go off I would usually snooze about ten minutes, the time it took for Tater to come back from the bathroom, then get up and grab my bathroom caddy, some clothes and my zelda flip flops and head for a quick shower. We lived in a community bathroom dorm so the flip flops were a vital part of daily life. Otherwise the like-likes in the bathroom would get you, ew. I was really cold this morning and I just couldn’t get the shower hot enough, I had the knob turn all the way and it was still cold for some reason. My skin told a different story though, after getting out of the shower I looked in the mirror and I was bright red, as if I had been laying out on the beach all day without sunscreen. It didn’t hurt like a sunburn and I was still cold. Eventually my skin returned to normal. I got ready for class, I decided to go with one of my nerdy shirts, jeans and my green Cons. I owned about 12 pairs of Cons in different flavors. If I could afford it, I would probably own a lot more. It was warm out so I didn’t bother drying my hair, frizz didn’t really bother me. I grabbed my laptop and books and threw them into my shoulder bag and headed off to class. I always found it funny that Tater and I never talk in the mornings, it was some sort of unspoken rule. Like our bodies would shatter if we had to engage in conversation that early.

Our dorm was only a short walk from the science and research building so I was always early for class. Which I kind of enjoyed because professor Okpara would start writing his notes on the board before class. So I could get them down before class started and then concentrate on the lecture. Professor Okpara was interesting, he always wore these dark green dress pants and a dark shirt. He was born in Malawi Africa and had one of the best accents I’ve ever heard. All the students called him Chip behind his back because his first name was Ndale. He was brilliant though and I was really glad to be taking his class. This was my first foray into the realm of quantum physics but I’ve been reading on the subject for a while, not necessarily understanding it but still reading it. I like the idea of something being two completely different things at the same time, a wave and a particle. Which it looked like we were learning more about today.

“Today we are going to talk about the Double Slit experiment, People.” Professor Okpara said as a few students audibly smirked. “It is the most telling and simple experiment in quantum physics as well and being a very strange phenomena,” Professor Okpara continued in that beautiful African accent.

He went on to explain how when we shoot particles at something with two slits in it we end up with two bars on the wall behind it, which made perfect sense. Then when we shoot waves at something with two slits we end up with this thing called an interference pattern because the waves coming through the slits start to cancel each other out in parts. So we get bars of concentration separated by blank spots on the back wall. Here’s where it got cool...

“However, if we were to shoot electrons, which I remind you third year physicists are particles, at the two slits we should get simply two bars on the back wall but we actually get an interference pattern. Because at that level it begins to act as a wave. Mathematically the electron goes through both slits and neither slit all at the same time and interferers with itself. It travels through all possibilities, all at the same time.”

I’ll save you the boring math but this is where I fell in love with physics. The electron behaved as if everything was possible. But then things got weird...

“As an experiment we must determine what is actually happening so we begin to measure the electrons as they pass through the slits to determine which one of the slits it actually passes through. Upon adding a method of measurement or an ‘Observer’,” he turned to the class and made sure we all knew that word was important by dragging it out and over dramatizing it. “We find that the pattern that emerges collapse to just two simple bars on the back wall. So what happened?” he asked rhetorically, despite a few hands going up he proceeded to answer the question himself. “The very act of observing has collapsed the realms of possibilities to a single event. The observer collapses possibilities into reality. You’re doing it right now, in what you see and witness. This is the reality that you have collapsed and that I have collapsed from all possibilities.”

Immediately a dozen hands go up including mine and we all waited eagerly to be called on. Josh, this frosty-tip haired guy in the front got firsts and asked if we needed to memorize the equations for the exam. He was always concerned with what was going to be on the exam. I think he needed to know what information he could forget quickly as there seemed to be little room in his head for both the uncertainty principle and necessary timing required to beat the Fire and Fury on ‘Expert’ in Guitar Hero. It was all I ever saw him do, he was constantly in the common room playing Guitar Hero. Professor Okpara said, “YES” rather sternly as that sort of question always seemed to piss him off. After a few more questions about the math he got to me.

“Um, yes, Professor...I was just wondering about the timing of the experiment because we can observe the outcome of the experiment and it turns out one way but if we observe the action it turns out a different way. So does that mean that if the electron was unaware it was being observed at the time it might act differently? Does that make sense at all?” The class laughed a little. Josh laughed a lot.

“Well Ms. Wahl, the idea of an observer in this case would be defined by its existence in that time at that place thereby changing the outcome of the action. Think of a time travel movie, if you go back in time you could change the future by doing something as simple as squashing a bug. Well, we are all time travelers. We are traveling through the present to the future and all of our actions affect the future. Even our very existence affects the future so we cannot remove our observable existence from the equation to witness all the possibilities.”

I liked professor Okpara, because he never thought my questions were silly, he always answered them but I think I keep asking these stupid questions that don’t make any sense but I guess thats why I’m asking. However I hated that he called me Ms. Wahl, it made me feel old. I know it’s supposed to make me feel respected or whatever but it doesn’t. Luckily I don’t get a creepy vibe from Professor Okpara or it would really bug me, I’m just weird I guess.

“If there are no more questions, lets continue...” he trailed off as he started writing more equations on the board.

The next part of class was nothing but the mathematical evidence to support the experiment and my brain hurt and I was tired of drawing a delta, its shape had a particular rhythm that made my wrist hurt after a while.

“OK people lets stop there for today, be sure to grab these two articles on your way out and have them read for next class,” he dropped two stacks of photocopied articles on a table near the front and began to pack up his things.

I made my way to the front to pick up the articles.

“Cassandra! Hey is your roommate home right now?” Josh yelled toward me.

Ugh, I knew where this was going but I obliged him anyway, “Nope, she’s in class till noon today then she’s free.”

“OK. Awesome, hey can I borrow your notes later? I didn’t get some of the math stuff,” he stated rather honestly and jokingly at the same time.

“Um sure, I can make you a copy in the hall if you like.”

“Nah, I’ll come by later if that’s cool. I want to copy it out, it helps me remember it. Maybe in the afternoon if that’s ok,” he said failing to be sincere.

“I guess that’s ok...” I stated sarcastically, which he obviously failed to catch on to.

“Cool, see you later,” Josh trotted off and I made my way to see Professor Okpara.

“Excuse me, Professor?”

“Yes, Ms. Wahl?”

“I was wondering if you could recommend some reading on the theory side of stuff, I really like the concept and kinda want to learn more about it.”

“The mathematics doesn’t interest you much Ms. Wahl?” he asked jokingly.

“Not really,” I said without moving my jaw.

“Well there are a few things I could recommend but I’m afraid most of them are out of print and you may have some trouble finding them. Yet, I am willing to let you read them in my office if you have some spare time,” he said.

“Um, yeah that would be ok, I’m usually free Friday nights actually,” I said slightly ashamed.

“Well you’re in luck, I happen to have a late lecture on Fridays, so you can read while I’m in class and maybe we can chat about it afterwards if your so inclined,” he said enthusiastically.

“Yeah, that works out well actually.”

“Good, I will see you friday Ms. Wahl, now if you’ll excuse me I must prepare for my next class,” he began gathering his things.

“Thanks again professor, bye.”

I now have a Friday night date with my physics professor. My life is so sad sometimes. Still, I’m a little excited about these out of print books he’s talking about. Now I had to figure out what I was going to do in the afternoon while Josh “copied my notes.” I really didn’t like being in the room while guys hit on Tater. It was just so sad, it should really be a shitty TV show, Real Roommates of Northern Tech. Seriously, if that was a show, I bet Tater would watch it.

Next Chapter: New Chapter