Similar to many college freshman across America this fall, I find myself living in a dorm for the first time in my life. It has been full of late nights and early mornings. Full of laughs and many stories about our hometowns that have brought us closer together. I have met so many great people in my hall and have had some adventures that I now feel I have enough experience living in a college dorm to review it. After successfully surviving a few weeks in Robinson Hall at St. Bonaventure University, here are my thoughts on living in this community.

1. Dorm rooms are a lot smaller than I assumed.

Without all of my belongings in the room, it looked spacious enough to live comfortably for two semesters. After about a week, I'm already constantly picking trash up off the ground and throwing clothes in my hamper, trying to maintain some sort of clean environment in the room. The first few days were odd because I had never shared a room with anyone before, but I love hanging out with my roommate and we are always inviting our friends to hang out in our room.

2. The bathrooms aren't terrible.

Growing up with three brothers, I grew accustomed to sharing a bathroom with other people. This made my transition to living in these dorms easy, for I was accustomed to sharing a bathroom with the other girls in my hall and barely gave any thought to it. I have always heard horror stories about people not cleaning up after themselves or how gross the bathrooms can get, but I was happy to see these myths busted here. Overall, the bathrooms are not that bad.

3. Sleep is for the weak (and the week).

Ever since I got to college, I have found myself staying up much later than I would have at home. Specifically weekends are where I find myself sitting on the ground at 3 a.m. laughing at someone's story about their crazy night. Similarly, I have also found myself working on a paper due the next day, then looking at the clock and realizing it's past midnight. I have grown accustomed to the late nights and awful early mornings now, but I am still looking at the clock constantly thinking "I should be sleeping."

4. You should try and find different places to study.

A change of scenery is always a good thing. I kept getting distracted in my dorm room, so I tried to find a different place to get my work done. The lobby in our building always had someone watching TV on full volume or a gathering of friends making some food, so I tried my luck at the library. This change of setting made it a lot easier to stay focused and get my work done, so I highly recommend getting out of the small cell called a dorm room to get more work done.

5. You will make great friends.

Being that I had never left home before, I was anxious about making friends and getting along with people in my dorm. My anxieties were quickly washed away after one night and I soon found myself constantly meeting more and more people my first week at school. My Instagram was full of new follow requests and I had more Facebook friends than ever before. This is one of the stresses I had going in, but now I no longer give it any second thought. I have met so many great people that I know I will stay friends with past my four years in college.