Kali Glover was a student-worker in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Division of Communications and Marketing during the spring 2024 semester. Glover, native of Johnson City, Tennessee, and a first-generation college student, is graduating in May with a bachelor’s degree in communication.
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Rosie Robinson, left, and Kali Glover were roommates as UTC first-year students in 2020-2021 (photo courtesy of Kali Glover).
These last four years at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga have been the most challenging and rewarding of my life. I learned more about myself during this time than I imagined and made friends that will last a lifetime. I am finally graduating, and I cannot help but think of my first friend at UTC.
During this ceremony, there will be a student missing, but not one that has been forgotten.
It was August 2020, and I was about to move into my new dorm in the scorching heat while still adhering to the strict COVID-19 guidelines. After many trips up and down to the third floor of Boling Apartments, I had finally moved in. However, my anxiety was not yet eased, seeing as I had waited until the last minute and was assigned a random roommate.
Rosie Robinson walked into the dorm with short red hair and a grin from ear to ear, practically oozing excitement. I helped her set up her room, hang her photos of hometown friends and install command hooks. When my parents left, hers stayed, and we went and got some pizza from a local place downtown.
She was warm and spirited, making the three-hour move away from home seem not so far. I had a friend. Rosie was the kind of person you just wanted to be around, the kind that feels like sunshine.
We would spend many nights awake talking, making macaroni and cheese and dinosaur chicken nuggets and watching whatever one of us put on the TV. We understood each other in the ways that both of us needed.
Rosie got up every morning and faced each day as if it were a new opportunity to be her best self. She kept her mind and body at their top performance, investing in her faith.
I was not very spiritual then, but her love for her church and community inspired me and everyone she interacted with.
Rhabdomyosarcoma is a rare cancer.
Rosie was diagnosed in her senior year of high school; after beating it, she decided to continue her plans to become a nurse.
Rosie was what I like to call an academic weapon, spending hours studying for her future nursing career.
In one year, my seemingly random roommate became a treasured friend and confidant.
I’ll never forget lying on the floor of room 337 side by side with Rosie during the last week of classes.
“We did it,” I said, “Freshman year in the books!”
With a grin and a laugh, Rosie said all she needed to.
We had the best freshman year and with tears in our eyes—and the longest hug goodbye—we turned in our keys to room 337 for the last time.
It was the best freshman year I could have ever imagined.
In May 2021, doctors concluded that Rosie’s cancer had returned. Despite the diagnosis, Rosie decided to return to UTC.
Still going to classes, studying for tests and spending hours studying, Rosie continued pursuing her academic goals.
On Oct. 23, 2021, at the age of 19, Rosie Robinson passed away.
Rosie Robinson exuded everything it means to be a Moc. Our graduation would have been this May and she deserves to be remembered.
Rosie was not a taker but a giver. She gave me friendship, love and—more than anything else—taught me determination. To love Rosie was to be inherently changed by her goodness, a change that impacts my life daily.
As I wave goodbye to my time at UTC, I am forever grateful for the friends I have come to know and love.
Rosie Robinson photo gallery provided by her mom, Jeanne Robinson
