Dorm Living
Good day to my fellow freshman and all the others making their way through this quest for independence dubbed college.
The tale of the adventures of Madame Hailey Maddock through freshman year ensues as I take on one of the most significant missions of life: college.
The Freshman Chronicles is a place in the SPECTRUM where you will get to hear of all the eloquent and less sententious parts of being a freshman from the perspective of a current first year student.
In this week’s entry, we will be considering the topic of dorm living.
Because NDSU requires freshmen to live on campus, just about all of us have some sort of experience with this. Whether dorm living is categorized as good or bad in your opinion, it is most definitely a teaching time, especially for those of us who have had the privilege of having our own room back home.
I know that when I was contemplating living in the dorms this past summer, I couldn’t get over the fact that I would now be sharing a room with a complete stranger. I would be expected to fit my life into a space equivalent to Harry Potter’s cupboard with someone who might have completely different habits when it comes to sleep schedule, cleanliness, and privacy.
Not only was the idea of living with another human being hard to grasp but the concept that I would also be sharing every other amenity and facility with an entire floor or building of other students. I can tell you with confidence that the tales of communal bathrooms are not at all exaggerated.
In the last few weeks, I have experienced many bathroom phenomenons including but not limited to, a feeling close to shock when I thought a hairball on the shower floor was a giant spider or utter confusion when I was brushing my teeth one night and a random girl came up to me, hugged me, and apologized for something that I was not and am still not aware of.
Communal bathrooms shared with around one hundred people are not the move. I also have to complain a little about the laundry situation in Dinan Hall because I am expected to share three washers and four dryers with the entirety of the dorm.
No matter how organized the laundry schedule is, there will almost always be someone using your washer or dryer when you are signed up, and believe me when I say I will not be the Karen who takes the laundry out and puts it in the Basket of Shame.
My last complaint is the whole parking situation. I’m not sure if any of you can relate, but I live in Dinan, so the closest parking lot to me is T-Lot which is around a mile away from my dorm, and in the dark, not the safest place to be parking and walking back from after a late night visit to Walmart.
Aside from everything I just listed, dorm living isn’t all that bad. In all honesty, after living in a dorm for the last month, I have come to appreciate the space that is my dorm and all the comfort it brings with it.
I have my fuzzy blankets that shed everywhere, my fanny pack I have slung on my lofted bed to act as a bedside caddy, and my snacks that consist of a jar of pickles, chips and salsa, and the supplies to make peanut butter jelly sandwiches as a stand-in meal.
As an introvert, being able to escape to my room after a long day of being surrounded by people has become part of my daily routine.
Once I’ve finished my classes for the day, I head back to my dorm where I change into my comfy clothes that consist of pajama pants and a sweatshirt of some kind, my favorite at the moment being a sweater featuring the Griswold family Christmas tree(if you understand this, you have entered elite cultural reference status).
I then turn on The Office and take out my jar of pickles that I will munch on the rest of the night. Some of you might consider this a very sad routine, but I have found this is one of the few things that brings me happiness and stability.
Aside from everything I just listed, dorm living isn’t all that bad.
Dorm living may seem like this awful thing that must be conquered at some point, but when you look at it from a more positive perspective, you might be able to realize just how convenient and beneficial it can be.
Living on campus has made my life one hundred times easier in that I only have to walk about five to ten minutes to my classes and have three dining halls available at the expense of having to walk a few miles to reach the good ones; that’s a topic for another day.
Dorm living has also allowed me to make friends for the sole reason that they live in the same building as me. I only have to travel a few feet to go to my best friend’s dorm where we (I) love to watch romcoms and complain about anything under the sun in order to contribute to the impending negativity of the world.
In conclusion, dorm living kind of lives in the area of my brain that is categorized as neutral. I don’t love every aspect that comes with living in the dorms, but I also don’t hate them, which I’d say is an accomplishment considering the list of reasons I have provided.
And with that, I wish my fellow freshman good luck and God’s speed.