Coming to college, I didn’t know what living in a dorm would be like, and I quickly found out. It is a mixture of smells and sounds you’ve never experienced before, fire alarms going off at one in the morning and getting to see the many different (and I mean different) types of people that inhabit your campus. Along the way, I have compiled a list of things that have really made the dorm life the rough life, and here they are.

1. Loud neighbors

Everyone has that one person on their floor that is literally the loudest person ever, and that person always ends up being my next door neighbor. These walls are so thin that sometimes you hear things you really wish you wouldn’t have, but the misery doesn’t end there. You ALSO have that person who lives in the room above yours that wears lead boots every day of their life and moves their furniture at 3 A.M.

2. Community Bathrooms

Blessed are those who do not have to share a bathroom with 39 other females. I don’t know about other people, but I have a specific stall (second from the right) that I use, and I also have a specific shower (second from the left) that I use. I never use a different stall or shower unless there is something gross about mine. I like to think that there is something that keeps others from using MY stalls, but let’s be real, every one of the girls on this floor has showered in my shower. In the end, community bathrooms are just plain gross simply because of the number of people using them on a daily basis.

3. Bugs

They always catch you at your weakest moment, and they make the rest of your week miserable because where there’s one, there’s a whole colony. Even once you kill it and set it on fire, you still feel like that disgusting life form is crawling in your sheets. The most horrifying thing about living in a dorm is the fact that even as I’m sitting here, the roaches are here, and they are plotting their attack.

4. Weird smells

I don’t know how, but the hallway outside my door can go from smelling pleasant to smelling absolutely disgusting in about three minutes. It also never fails that the smelliness leaks into my room, and that’s all I can smell for the next week. Even if I have my Scentsy fired up, my Glade Plug-in going and my fan blowing toward the outside of my room, that smell, whether it be burnt popcorn, dirty feet or the stench from maintenance working on the toilets, lingers.

5. The roommate

Most people have a roommate at some point. Some get really lucky and end up being BFFLs with their roommate. Some people aren’t so lucky and have to live in close quarters with a total nut-job. This person will hear every conversation you have on the phone, they will hear you snore every night and they will know your habits, disgusting ones and all, by the time this is over. Roommates may be a nuisance, but they make dorm life a lot less lonely.

6. Limited Space

I don’t know about you all, but when I came to college, I brought a lot of stuff. And now, six months later, I’m regretting bringing all of this stuff because there is not a place for everything. The thing about living in a dorm is that no matter how you arrange the furniture, no matter how much stuff you squeeze into your closet and hang on your walls, no matter the number of storage bins you have hidden under your bed, it will always be cramped.

7. Temperature

You are either sitting in Antarctica with improper clothing or you have just walked through the gates of Hell. There is no in between in dorm life. For one day, I would love to sit in a 68-degree dorm and be comfortable, but it never fails that when that perfect temperature day comes, someone complains they are cold and back to the gates of Hell we go.

8. Constant Distractions

Your room is a difficult place to get work done because of the distractions all around you. Your television is in there, Netflix is a click away, the mini donuts you bought yesterday are calling your name and there are people riding scooters up and down the hall just outside your door. Even something as simple as hearing the conversation going on in the next room can be distracting, so if you want to actually accomplish something, you usually have to go find somewhere quiet.

Though there are some disadvantages to dorm life, there are also many great things too. Living in dorms gives you many different opportunities, such as getting to meet so many new people. I have killed too many bugs, been distracted by so many different things, been so cold I was showing signs of hypothermia and dealt with the disgusting side of community bathrooms, but I’m still glad that I chose the dorm life because it has given me endless opportunities (and a job).