The Golden Ticket
"Whoa--hold on!" the young lady stammered as she looked down at the clipboard where her finger was pressed tightly against the paper. "You're not Michelle Rodgers," she said in a stern tone. "No I'm not," the young man adamantly replied, "My first name is not Michelle, my first name is Rodgers with an S." Before the girl could object further he continued. "My last name is Michel, it rhymes with nickel," he advised her, "My name is Rodgers Helmut Michel... It's German?" "But this isn't a coed dorm!" she exclaimed.
* * *
Rodgers Helmut Michel didn't care for his parents too much. To begin with, he did not like being named Rodgers. It was his mother's maiden name and she insisted on giving it to him. Then there was Helmut given to him by his father who was in large part German. "Well, my first name could have been worse if mom had not won-out," he often thought. At least she had done that for him.
At some point in the fifth grade he adopted the nickname "Mick," short for Michel. He got tired of explaining his odd name and of the teasing that always came with it. He was not sure if he got teased more about Rodgers or Helmut. Every now and then someone would call him "Michelle," but the older he got, the less and less that happened.
Mick joined the U.S. Army right after high school because it was a quick way of extricating himself from his family and a means to earn more money for college. He was bright and ambitious and had always wanted to continue his education after high school, so he worked various jobs at night and during the weekends to save as much as he could for his anticipated future. During a high school economics class, he participated in a mentoring program that taught young adults about the stock market and the many avenues of personal investing. He was paired-up with an advisor who spoke to Mick's parents and convinced them to open a custodial account for their son. Using money Mick earned while working at a grocery store during high school, they made some small investments on his behalf which did very well and it helped him boost his savings for college by the time he was ready to apply.
After six years in the service, between having saved his pay, the military tuition assistance he qualified for, and his own savings and investments, Mick had enough money saved to comfortably cover the costs of a four-year undergraduate degree. Although he had learned to be quite the capable investor, a career in that field did not appeal to him at all. Instead, he applied to several schools with good electronic engineering programs and was accepted by most of them. He decided on one in Colorado which had offered him an attractive tuition assistance package and had a female to male student body ratio of 60/40. It also happened to be far from his parents' home located on the east coast.
* * *
Today was "move-in day" when everyone living on school campus moved their belongings into their dorm rooms before the start of the fall semester, but there was a little problem with Mick's room assignment. Someone in the housing office had not taken the time to read his name on the application properly and mistakenly assigned Michelle Rodgers to an all-girls dorm.
The young lady with the clipboard looked perturbed. "Sure you didn't make an intentional mistake on your housing application?" she said accusingly. "Excuse me?" Mick replied with an indignant tone. "Well I can't let you move your things into the dorm because you don't belong here," she said. "You are going to have to go over and speak with someone at the housing office in the administration building and get a new housing assignment," she told him further. Like the girl, Mick was now annoyed as well.
"Can I help you?" a nice woman behind the counter asked as Mick entered the housing office. She could tell by the look on his face that he had a problem. "My name is Mick, I mean... my name is Rodgers Michel, and it seems a mistake has been made with my dorm assignment." The nice woman listened to his story and laughed, assuring Mick that they would figure it out somehow. She said she wanted to go find his paperwork and talk to the housing coordinator.
About five minutes later the lady returned with another older woman with glasses who immediately extended her hand to shake Mick's. "Hi, I'm Susan Jacobs the housing coordinator," she said congenially. "Julia was filling me in on your issue and we've looked over your paperwork and apparently someone misread your name on the application and gave you the wrong housing assignment thinking you were female," Miss Jacobs informed him before saying further, "The problem is, at the moment I don't really have any other place to put you."
Miss Jacobs began to explain that student housing this year was a real challenge for the university. One of larger dormitories was undergoing some badly needed renovations which was not on schedule and many students had been moved into off-campus housing for the year, but because Mick was a freshman and was not exempt, he was required to live on campus in a residence hall.
"Susan, don't forget," Julia interjected, "All the girls assigned to Bradley Hall were overflow from requested coed assignments." She noted that, "None of them requested same-sex accommodations. Technically, Bradley is a coed dorm." Julia looked at Susan for a moment before turning to Mick. "Well, I have no other place to put you now anyway," she told him before asking, "Would you have any issues with being housed there temporarily?"
Mick stood there dumbfounded coming to grips with his incredible good fortune. For the first time in his life he thanked his parents for his awful name. Realizing that he was blankly staring at Miss Jacobs with his mouth agape he quickly composed himself and stammered, "N-n-no, that would be, that's... that's fine... sure."