My freshman year at Grand Canyon University was spent as a resident in "The Grove." As I soon found out, being a Grove resident automatically made you uncool in the eyes of what felt like all of the upperclassmen. I didn't understand why that was until I moved into one of the new, on-campus apartments this year. In my week of living in an apartment, I can see exactly why most upperclassmen had a strange animosity towards the residents of The Grove.
See, I loved living in Juniper Hall in The Grove. Juniper was my first home at GCU, and I cherish the memories I created there. But one of the main advantages and disadvantages (depending on how you look at it) is the fact that The Grove. Never. Sleeps. While that's fantastic when you're a bright-eyed freshman who has barely experienced midterms and finals week, it's awful when you are deep into your program classes and trying to study, sleep, and actually "adult" successfully.
In my week of living in an apartment, I have learned several things:
1. Kitchens are great.
The fact that I can make breakfast, lunch, dinner, AND chocolate chip cookies all in my pjs is kind of amazing. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up *insert Ferris Beuller quote here.* But in all seriousness, kitchens are the best thing to happen to college students who are sick of campus food, which is a category I definitely fit into.
2. Having your own bedroom is lonely.
As someone who lived with 5 other people her freshman year and shared a bedroom with 2 of them, having my own bedroom is weird. That being said, I have my own bedroom at home, so it's not like I'm not used to sleeping in a room by myself. But the atmosphere of living on campus and knowing your roommates are in the next room just makes me miss having people to talk to as I fall asleep. Yes, it's nice to have my own space and be able to decorate how I want, but it's also lonely.
3. Freshmen have so. Much. Energy.
I'm one to talk, I was up with my group of friends until the wee hours of the morning. But now that we're older and wiser (or so I like to think), we've realized that we simply don't have the energy to stay up forever like we used to. Now, that might be due to the fact that we spent all day moving the new freshmen into their dorms *shoutout to all the Welcome Week volunteers,* but I honestly don't think that our habits will change much over the next year, and I know from experience that the freshmen won't lose very much of their energy. They will be up playing volleyball and soccer on the turf, watching Netflix in the dorm courtyards, and playing card games and board games in their building lobbies until the day they turn in their keys.
Yes, I understand why nobody seems to like The Grove: We've forgotten what it's like to have that new energy! But I also know why the freshmen love it so much: It's their own little world where everybody is in the same boat. They've all left home for the first time, they're all trying to "adult" for the first time, and they're all trying to have fun while doing it. My first dorm at GCU is where I grew into the person I am today, but like all good things, my freshman year in Juniper came to an end. So while Juniper Hall and The Grove will always be my first home at GCU, I'm ready for life in an apartment.
