If you told me my freshmen year of college that I would be sleeping in the same room as 38 other people, I would have told you that you’re crazy. If you had told me that I’d be living with 38 other females, let alone the 52 I currently live with, I would have laughed in your face.

Which is why I feel like such a hypocrite whenever I tell people that I honestly love it. I love living in. I love living in a shoe box. Most of all I love the sleeping porch.

You see, when I first heard the words “sleeping porch,” it was during one of the sorority house tours I took my freshmen year during sorority recruitment. While touring various overly neat and overly decorated rooms the girl giving me the tour perkily informed me that “we don’t have a sleeping porch, so everyone has a bed in their room.”

Needless to say, I was a little confused. Where else would someone have a bed besides their room? Were there really sorority houses that made girls sleep outside on a porch? Did these porch sleepers have to sleep in waterproof sleeping bags? The term itself didn’t seem very welcoming.

Ok, let me back up a second. For those of you who aren’t exactly caught up on the sorority lingo let me explain exactly what a sleeping porch, colloquially referred to as “The Porch”, really is. A sleeping porch is a large room filled with bunk beds that is always dark, always cold, and always quiet. Each girl selects either a top or bottom bunk on a bunk bed and that is where she sleeps.

It’s a room in which the whole purpose of which is to sleep. The only part of my belongings that I have on the sleeping porch is my pillow, electric blanket, and maybe a stuffed animal (which I will neither confirm nor deny the existence of). My desk, dresser, and closet all reside in a separate “study room” which I share with three other girls.

I know it sounds weird. It did to me at first. Before I started living in the sorority house I was genuinely convinced I wasn’t going to be able to sleep on the porch at all. First of all, I thought I would freeze to death since fire and health code regulations require the windows to be open at all times.

Second, I thought I would be woken up every five minutes due to girls talking, people climbing up and down from bunks and constant alarms going off.

But honestly, I’ve gotten the best sleep of my life on the porch. I mean of course at first, it was a culture shock getting used to falling asleep with other people going in and out and alarms going off at all given times in the morning but after about a week my body just sort of adjusted.

The only time I wake up is to the sound of my own alarm. As for the cold, it's not that bad with the addition of an electric blanket and some flannel sheets. Once the blanket heats up it’s actually quite cozy.

The best part of the porch though is it provokes separated living. I study in one place and I sleep in another. Before the porch, I had an issue getting to sleep because I could lie in bed and watch Netflix on my computer and be on my phone.

Now my mind knows that when I go into the porch, it’s sleep time. It also allows me a space in which I can study and have the light on 24/7 since no one sleeps in the room in which I have my desk.

When I lived in the dorms my freshmen year, my roommate and I had very different sleep habits. I stayed up late to study while she preferred to be in bed earlier. This left me with the decision of finding somewhere else to study or to bother her with the lamplight. Now I can stay up until all hours of the night cramming for midterms since there’s no one sleeping in my room to be bothered by my frustrated groans.

It also prevents me from the classic “studying” in bed or as it usually ends up for me “falling asleep with my textbook as my pillow.” The porch is also perfect for the sleep deprived induced quick midday nap since it’s a place guaranteed to be dark, thanks to the heavy duty light blocking curtains, and always quiet, thanks to the dirty looks anyone making copious amounts of noise receives.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s not all flowers and rainbows. I do miss spending Saturdays afternoons lounging in bed for hours and not having to run up a whole flight of stairs to get to my closet. It can also really make it feel like there is no privacy whatsoever.

But this forced social interaction is part of what has helped me bond to the people around me. After all, what’s more bonding than making your friends walk with you to bed because you just watched “Stranger Things” for the first time and now have an irrational fear of Demogorgons.

All in all, the porch isn’t that bad. I actually like it. After all, its quite reassuring to know that if I’m in dire need of a high five in the middle of the night all I have to do is reach over and wake up my neighbor, and if I have a crisis at 8:00 in the morning my closest friends are only one bunk and a hard shove away.