Yes, I was that girl that picked the dorm that all the sorority girls lived in no matter how gross I was told it was. I was the girl that bought the 5-inch thick tempurpedic mattress cover. I was that girl that bought the smallest meal plan because “you’ll never eat in college”. I was that girl that bought the full out planner and every color pen in the aisle. I was that girl that only packed winter clothes because “its Lubbock, its cold up there.” I was that girl that brought the basic dorm supplies, the biggest shower caddy out there, thickest shower shoes, and who packed every item of clothing that was in my drawers and in my closet. I was also that girl who was told that you’d cringe when you opened your dorm room door for the first time.

But matter of the fact is, none of that was true. All the dorms are equally gross unless you chose to live in the most expensive housing on campus but who has got time for that…I’d rather spend that extra thousand on t-shirts at red raider outfitters. It’s all about what you make of it. There are hundreds of other girls feeling the same way. You either make or break it. You branch out and become friends with every girl on your floor.

Hey you don’t want girls sabotaging your laundry because they don’t like you…it happens. You sit with girls in different sororities or girls who aren’t in anything at all when you’re in the lobby stu(dying). You never know who you’re going to need to let you in when its 3 am when you’ve forgotten your ID card or to pretend they are your boyfriends escort when the CA calls him out. You ignore the huge hairball in the drain because that’s the shower with the best water pressure or you accept that you’re okay with just getting misted on. You learn that one day the heater will break in your room and you’ll freeze or in my case the air conditioner will be out for two weeks and all your food melts… You learn to become friends with your CA unless you want your 30$ dollar candle confiscated. Your dorm bed will never feel like a cloud or come into comparison to the one at home that you have dreams about…get used to it. All your clothes wont fit in your closet…so start saying your goodbyes. When josh abbot says, “have you ever had your hair blown back by a Lubbock wind...” yeah…um invest in a windbreaker, that’s all.

Oh wait, the weather does change every day. One day you’ll be wearing shorts to class and the next trudging to class in the snow, so bring your options or else you’ll be that girl wearing fleece leggings when its 80 degrees outside. *Cough cough me*. Also don’t misjudge your ability to eat. You wont have time to eat they said. Well, it is now 5 weeks into the spring semester and I have 75$ left on my card. Can’t wait for that phone call with dad… yikes. And girls, there’s a thing called Microsoft word. You don’t need all those fancy pens, markers, highlighters, or monogrammed notebooks. Plus class is more interesting when you can scroll through Facebook or twitter when your professor just starts rambling…not to mention they don’t realize you can text on your computer.

You aren’t a loser or lazy for taking the bus to class. Sometimes those extra 15-minutes of sleep you give yourself instead of using that time to walk to class can save your day. Roll out of bed and throw that baseball cap on. You aren’t the only one. Buy that subscription of Netflix and all the popcorn you can get, because you will have those days when getting out of bed to go to the party isn’t even an option. Also its totally acceptable to face time your mom every day. I promise the girls on your floor wont judge when you’re talking to your pets through the phone. Lastly, I couldn’t imagine not living in a 10x10 room.

There’s nothing that excites me more than storming into my room to annoy my roommate or vent about my dad. Hearing each other’s alarms go off and just exchanging that “maybe we’ll go to class tomorrow” look and roll back over. The girls on my floor are some of my best friends and I couldn’t imagine college with out them. So, Girl, you do you and you make the best of your freshman year. It’s one you won’t want to forget.