Moving into the dorms can be nerve-wracking because you never know what to expect. Well, know that these 20 things will definitely occur over the course of the year in the dorms.
1. Awkward ice breaker games
On move-in day, your RA will call a floor meeting. Everyone on the floor will meet in a common area, you will be sat down in a circle, and your RA will pair you up with someone. The next part can vary, but my RA had us tell our partner our major, our hometown, and what we wanted to be when we grew up. Now, I couldn’t tell you who I talked to on the first day, but I do remember that I felt so awkward. I mean, who is this person and how am I supposed to live down the hall from a stranger?
2. Overeager parents
Possibly the only thing more awkward than ice breaker games is overzealous parents introducing themselves to everyone down the hall. There’s nothing more uncomfortable than opening your door and being forced to make small talk with someone’s parents.
3. You will love meal plan
The first few weeks of classes, meal plan is the most exciting thing. I mean, you get $20 a day to spend on whatever kind of food you want? What more could I want from a school? A few months pass, and suddenly the meal plan food is not as appetizing as it was on Welcome Week. There’s only so much dining hall food someone can eat before being repulsed at the sight of it.
4. You’ll see the classic “college” posters.
The first time you walk into a new room, you can expect to see one of three posters or canvases. One, a movie poster from some action-packed thriller. Side note: The owner of the poster will definitely comment on the deep significance of the film, when everyone else knows that it’s just about some men punching each other in the face. Two, an inspirational quote, usually surrounded by the skyline of a foreign city the owner has never been to. And finally, a poster so drenched in drug references, that it basically screams “THE OWNER OF THIS POSTER HAS NEVER DONE DRUGS (but wants you to think they have)”
5. There will be a bathroom stall that nobody goes in for a week.
Why nobody has entered, only the janitor will know. For some reason, maybe a rumor of someone not flushing, there will inevitably be a week where nobody enters said stall for fear of contracting a terrifying disease or for fear of actually having to flush a toilet (gasp!).
6. You’ll get locked out of your room.
Whether you simply forgot your keys when you left for class or your roommate is sexiling you, eventually you won’t be able to get into your room. This calls for an impromptu hangout with your bestie down the hall until you can go into your room again.
7. There will be a “floor couple.”
When so many people live together for such a long time, there is bound to be romantic drama. While some floors promise on move-in day to have no “floorcest,” other floors are a free for all. Usually near the middle of the first semester, there will a few rumored couples, but by the end of the year, there is usually only one couple still together. Somehow they survived seeing each other first thing in the morning, and they dealt with each other when they were hangry and the dining hall was closed. Relationships that survive dorm life are usually the strongest ones, because you can’t hide your crazy when you’re living down the hall.
8. You’ll have to wait for a shower.
Especially if you’re living in a traditional-style dorm, sharing a bathroom with forty other girls does not go as smoothly as imagined (which was already pretty horrible in my head even before move in.) There is always one shower stall that is better than the others, and people will wait in line to get the best shower possible. Be prepared to wait for you shower, and when you finally get in, be prepared for cold water.
9. Someone will steal your laundry.
This is one of the worst parts of living in a dorm. Be sure to set alarms when your laundry is done, because if your clothes are sitting in the washer or dryer past their set time, someone will throw your clean clothes on the nasty laundry room floor. Even worse, someone could choose to look through your laundry (gross) and steal your clothes. School spirit gear is especially susceptible to theft in the dorms (I’m looking at you, whoever stole my Aztec basketball shirt).
10. Someone will randomly move out without saying goodbye.
There will be one student who will decide either to go home or to not live in the dorms anymore (I mean who can blame them) and they will leave without saying goodbye to anyone. On my floor freshman year, there was a foreign student who left to go back home one random Wednesday without any explanation or goodbye to anyone.
11. Your RA will suddenly crack down on your floor.
Whether it be the middle of the semester or the last month of classes, your RAs will inevitably decide it is a great time to begin to enforce all of the rules that they ignored until then. On my floor, this was talking during quiet hours. During the whole first semester, quiet hours were rarely enforced, and when they were, it was because people were being obnoxious. However for some reason, the RAs on my floor decided talking past ten at night was unacceptable. Be prepared for sudden strictness halfway through each semester. Pretty sure it’s because they were jealous of our late night dance sessions with my Monster SuperStar BackFloat - super loud, waterproof, bluetooth, floating speaker. Yeah, it’s sick.
12. Passive aggressive notes.
Whether it be a note from your roommate about the trash being out of control, or a note from the cleaning staff about cleaning up the bathroom better (because apparently in college, you have to clean before the cleaning staff gets there), there is nothing more irritating than reading a passive aggressive note. So to avoid unnecessary conflict, just be straightforward, and your issues will be resolved much quicker.
13. Hearing roommates fight.
This is probably one of the most interesting things that happens in the dorm halls. When two roommates were fighting, the whole floor knew about it because the walls were so thin.
14. Hearing other things.
Nothing is worse than walking past a room innocently and hearing something not-so-innocent happening behind closed doors. Obviously nobody told them how thin the walls are in the dorms. It is always awkward when it is happening next door. When this happened, I always reached for my Monster ClarityHD headphones to drown out the noises coming from next door and listen to favorite music like never before.
15. Someone will smell.
There will always be that one room that has a funky aroma coming from it, and nobody knows how to tell him or her that they smell. In other cases, someone’s odor could transfer to their sheets and then spread to their whole room, and eventually the whole hall. Nobody knows how to handle such an awkward situation, and inevitably the whole floor pitches in for some air freshener to make the hall smell better.
16. Someone will come home a little looser than usual.
When this happens, it is the sole responsibility of the floor mates to capture this moment via photos and videos to share with the person the next morning.
17. When someone comes home and is loud.
This always seemed to happen the night before a really important midterm or final. When the group of people who went out that night come home, it is nearly impossible for them to simply go to bed. Instead, they must stay up all night in the common room laughing about anything and everything.
18. Piecing together the night before.
When the whole floor goes out together, people will split up, and a lot of the fun is rehashing the night in the common room, figuring out what exactly happened the night before and where everybody ended up.
19. Someone will have a mental breakdown during finals week.
Let me correct myself: Everyone will have at least one cry session during finals week. Living in cramped corners and also trying to study for five major exams coming up is enough to make anyone cry, and therefore the whole floor usually bands together for a sob fest right before finals start.
20. You will meet your best friends.
Whether it’s the girl down the hall who you didn’t talk to until halfway through first semester or your roommate, you will find lifelong friends in the dorms. I mean, once they’ve seen all of your ups and downs and all of your crazy, how can they not be your friends for life?
Living in the college dorms is a whirlwind of emotions, and to say the least, it is what makes freshman year so memorable for thousands of students across the world.
