Living in a new place away from home can be really exciting. You get to make new friends and are basically able to do whatever you want without your parents being there to stop you. Rooming in college also means you have to share a bathroom, listen to people screaming till 3 am when you're trying to sleep, and eat sad dining hall food for four years straight.
1. Communal Bathrooms
Communal bathrooms are a nightmare. Unless you're super lucky and have a bathroom in your room, you're probably sharing one with the entire floor. And let me tell you, it's pretty likely that you will find hair and water everywhere.
The biggest issue with hair is when it comes to the showers. Personally speaking, finding hair on the floors and walls isn't a big deal. It does, however, become a big deal when it clogs the drains and the showers start flooding. The only two showers on my floor flooded for two weeks before we decided to call maintenance and have the drains unclogged. Taking a bath in other people's hair just isn't ideal.
2. Loud Floor-mates
Some people have to stay up late to get work done and some people like to stay up late and scream at the top of their lungs while blasting 'Mo Bamba' till the crack of dawn. Most of the time, your resident assistant will try to tell everyone to keep their voices down, but where I live, people get away with everything. Get used to sleeping through all kinds of noise.
3. Dining hall food
Most colleges have a few dining halls on campus where you can use prepaid meal swipes and eat as much food as you want in one sitting. Whether you're a vegan or a non-vegetarian, there is almost no variety in the food and it's generally incredibly bland. As a vegetarian, I am forced to eat undercooked pizza and over-salted pasta at the dining hall every day and I'm starting to miss the home cooked meals that I always took for granted.
I know I made college sound like a horrible place, but these are just a few minor inconveniences that everyone learns to deal with. That being said, I guarantee you, you will have a blast in college. Just keep your eyes closed when you're in the shower.
