“Make sure this article is coming out after recruitment,” one of my floormates said this morning. I woke up wondering what I would write about for this issue until I was in a bathroom - a bathroom that I share with 11 other women. That's when I realized, "This sucks."
Growing up, I was lucky enough to have my own bathroom in my bedroom, and my house had five bathrooms for four people. Last year, I lived in my sorority house in a room of nine girls, and the idea of nine girls sharing one bathroom terrified me. But this – having one bathroom on a floor of four triple bedrooms – is horrifying enough that it deserves an entire article for it.
So ladies, if you are thinking of living in your sorority house and you’re going to have to end up sharing a bathroom with half of your pledge class, here is what you can expect:
1. Everything goes missing
I am genuinely convinced that there is a ghost that goes around and takes something from everyone. Because no one in her right mind would steal another girl’s used razor or toothbrush ... right?
2. People leave stuff out
My favorite thing about going back to my parent’s house is that my bathroom is my space and my space only. In a sorority house, my space is shared with 40 other women, so it becomes everyone’s space. Unfortunately, a lot of people haven’t come to realize that idea yet, which results in a bathroom that looks like vomit consisting solely of hair products and make-up.
3. Hair - lots of hair
Blonde hair. Brown hair. Black hair. Everywhere. There is no getting around it.
4. You know everyone’s schedule
If Megan’s not in the bathroom with me at seven in the morning complaining about how dark it is outside and how much we hate our 8 a.m. lectures, I know she slept through her alarm. I also know what time the bathroom is going to be empty and that the best time to shower is in the middle of the day.
5. There is no such thing as “mine”
Once you let someone try your Moroccan oil, it is now a shared item between you two. Same goes for lotion, perfume, curling iron, toothpaste, hair brush, and the list goes on and on and on.
6. You realize that there are not enough mirrors in one house
I just measured our mirror and it is five feet wide with three sinks in front of it. Five feet of mirror for twelve girls – does that make sense to you? No? Me neither. You should see what it looks like on a Friday night.
7. If you can do this, you can do almost anything
There will never be a time in your life again when you will be asked to share a 10-foot by 10-foot bathroom with a dozen girls. Trust me when I say that it builds character. Getting ready for recruitment while it’s 90 degrees and 200% humidity is a challenge that not everyone can successfully complete. You build patience because you understand that sometimes, someone else perfecting the curls in her hair might be more important than two more minutes in front of the mirror staring at yourself.
You become a skilled makeup artist by learning how to paint your face and draw your eyeliner faster than it takes to choose an Instagram filter. You soon realize that the insane amount of time that they spend getting ready does not receive the attention or recognition deserved. Most important, you realize that all women are the same and that we are all on the same team.
We all hope that perfecting our contouring skills will make our faces look slimmer, that the new mascara we spend half of last week’s paycheck on will make our eyelashes seem longer, or that the $60 primer will finally do what it promises and take the oil off our faces. It almost hurts my heart thinking about how much time we spend excessively obsessing over ourselves to make an impression.
That’s what happens when you share a bathroom with 12 girls: You realize that we are all the same, we are all messy, and that we all spend too much time in front of the mirror.
