Countless times during my first year of college, I thought about the concrete box I was living in. I thought not only of the small dimensions and the friends on my floor and the RA down the hall and the pizza I was waiting to be delivered, but I thought of the people in that room before me. I also thought of you.
Your first year is going to be a whirlwind. You're going to be pulled in a million directions. You're going to have the best and the worst days of your life (thus far). Your freshman dorm room is going to make you an entirely different person. This room has been through all of it with me, as it will be with you. This room has been my retreat for 3-hour-long FaceTimes, my safe haven from loud hall-mates, my stage for scream-singing "Shut Up And Dance" with my roommate, and my getaway during finals. You'll be elated, miserable, excited, nervous, sick, in love, nostalgic, proud, and content in this room. You'll have laughing fits, long phone calls, cry sessions, movie marathons, and dance parties in this room. You'll have a lot of firsts in this room, but you're not a first for the room.
I remember my first night in that room. My parents were staying in a hotel in town because I thought I'd be nervous, but I was so excited. My roommate and I woke up the next morning and went knocking on other doors on our hall. No one answered. (We're not totally lame—we made friends later that day.)
I remember my first Friday night in that room. I was sick and miserable and my parents were states away. I got out of my lofted bed for the first time in two days and walked to the emergency room. I spent many subsequent weeks in that same lofted bed. (Don't worry, your dorm room has since been thoroughly cleaned.)
I remember when my roommate and I decided we needed a futon in the room. We completely changed the furniture arrangement, but at least now we had a super uncomfortable futon from Walmart! I remember the next semester when I was alone in the room, with my roommate away for the weekend, when I got too antsy in the room and rearranged everything myself. My advice: Don't try that.
I remember when my parents visited for Parents' Weekend and I rushed to get the room as clean as I could manage between chapter meetings and cramming for a Spanish midterm. They weren't very impressed by the condition of the dorm room, but it didn't matter.
I remember when my roommate and I, in another stroke of genius, decided we wanted a rug. When it arrived it barely covered a third of the floor in our room, it shed black dots everywhere, and it trapped hair like a vacuum (girl problems—ugh).
I remember when my friend from home, a newly admitted Tar Heel, visited my dorm room and looked around with wide eyes. I would do anything to do my first year over again, just to get more time.
Here are some things you should know and some pieces of advice about your new room.
You should clean your bathroom sink often—especially if your suite mates are always on top of their cleaning—or it'll make you look bad. You can, in fact, open the door while sitting on top of a lofted bed right next to the door, though I don't advise trying this one out. If you check out cooking supplies from the front desk, return them; otherwise, you'll be billed $50 for a cookie tray and spatula you forgot to return just because you needed to bake cookies while you were studying for econ. Your room is conveniently located right next to the stairs for easy access to the parking lot and, more importantly, to the car that is delivering your Insomnia Cookies, Wings Over Chapel Hill, Toppers Pizza, or BSkis. You should watch the washers on laundry day like you watch your class shopping cart on registration day—people are vultures and they'll swoop right in.
I hope you have a great first year of college. Get ready for your life to change.
P.S. If two strange sophomore girls knock on your door one day, please let us in; we just want to see your decorations.
P.P.S. I'm sorry I tore a patch of paint off the wall next to the bathroom. The Command Strips I used weren't supposed to do that!
