As a freshman, living in the house seemed amazing. A big house full of all my sisters? I'm in!
Unfortunately, little by little I would start hearing all the girls complain about living in the house. I would hear them talk about how they could not wait to get out of the house and move into an apartment. I did not really understand why they were complaining. They had food cooked for them, the housed cleaned, and they lived with their friends.
However, once I moved in, my view on living in the house changed.
Don't get me wrong, I love living with all my friends, but the glamor of the house has lost its luster. There are a couple things no one really tells you about living in the house. The major thing is that the rooms are small. You know this going in, but going from a dorm that was huge with its own bathroom to a box with a community bathroom is quite a leap. The house is big, and it is nice to lay in the chapter room and watch a movie, but when you live in the house, you do not really have control over who uses the chapter room or library or dining room for meetings and study groups; so you do not always have that much privacy.
You also have to be quiet at certain times of the night, an annoying rule until you are the one trying to study and no one else seems to be following the quiet rule. Living with your best friends is amazing, but when you just want to relax and have a girls' wine night, you cannot. In addition to all of your amazing friends who live in the house, standards also lives there. This can be inconvenient at times. Especially when it is your birthday, your friend's birthday, or it is the weekend. To those girls out there with boyfriends, I hope they have apartments because they cannot really ever come to the house. On the bright side, though, they can come to guest dinner.
When chapter rolls around, you can roll out of bed and walk down the hall. Also, living on campus is extremely convenient. Instead of having one closet, it is like you have a house full of closets. There are a lot of perks to living in the house because the food is amazing, and you can always walk next door when you need a friend.
Living in the house is an experience I think everyone should have. The level of convenience is amazing, and being near your friends is essentially what every sorority girl wants. While it does get frustrating at times, overall, it is definitely an experience I won't ever forget.
