As a displaced out-of-state student, I faced no choice but to live on campus -- not that I'm complaining. More often than not, on-campus housing is attacked than appreciated. It is the relative you insult, yet defend when they aren't around. In the following words, I compose a honest love letter to all of the ups, downs, and sideways of living on a college campus.
1. The room temperatures are as unstable as your bank account. Bundled up in sweats one second; stripping to the bare necessities in the next.
2. You and your floor-mates transform the bathroom into a makeshift hair salon. (Or has that been only my floor for the past few weeks?)
3. Random fire alarms wake you up at the ungodly hour of 7 o'clock in the morning.
4. Awkward sexual encounters when your roommate walks in on you and your partner.
5. Awkward sexual encounters when you walk in on your roommate and their partner.
6. Movie nights (or gossip sessions, because everyone refuses to be quiet during the important scenes) with the friends on your floor.
7. Your RA attempts to host a floor Halloween/Christmas/insert-holiday-here party. The parties do not come to fruition.
8. You complain about parking. Paying so much to live on campus implies that you should be able to park inside the football stadium if you desired.
9. You also complain about the cramped space in your dorm. It is too small surface area for so many things, especially when you share the room with another person.
10. You struggle to not be self-conscious while passing a Number Two in the community bathroom (sometimes, you just use the private bathroom if possible).
11. You pray that your roommate takes pity on you, a fellow poor starving college student, and shares their snacks.
12. Speaking of roommates, you two have to decide who takes out the trash sooner or later. Leaving it there until it rots is not an option.
13. Once night falls, you stare at your ceiling, attempting to sleep, but mull over all of your terrible life choices.
14. You make it a point to ignore looking at your campus-living bills. You make it a point to ignore all college bills, period.
15. Visiting hours are a universal pain.
16. After several failed attempts, you decide that Pinterest dorm decorations must be witchcraft. You go to Target in surrender.
17. How do you manage to lose so many socks on the short journey from the washer to the dryer?
18. You avoid the occasional condom abandoned outside the dorm building.
19. You would not trade those late-night talks and shenanigans for anything else.
20. Whether you love it or hate it, or perhaps you find yourself somewhere in-between, you can not deny that living on campus has affected your college experience.
