When you tell people you live in an all-girls dorm you often receive a variety of responses.

1. You will be woken up at random hours of the night

Whether it’s a Tuesday or a Friday night, you are bound to hear unexplainable sounds coming from the hallway. These may be screaming, laughing, or singing, but whatever they are, they are bound to wake you up. But don’t worry, wait 5 minutes and someone ballsy enough will send a message in your hall group-me basically saying in simple terms, “shut the f*ck up.” Everyone will either send one of these messages or be the cause of a sent message, so don’t take it too personally.

2. You will take part in a “shower party”

With only eight showers on the hall, it is more than likely you will be showering at the same time as someone else. More than half the time you shower you will either listen to your own music blasting or music of choice by the person who got in the shower first. It’s harder than you think to not start humming or singing when throwback T-Swift songs come on and before you know it all 4 showers are filled with girls screaming “we are never ever ever getting back together.”

3. You will find an unidentifiable substance in the bathroom

By Sunday, these bathrooms are completely trashed. More times than you would like you find something that shouldn’t be in the toilet or even worse, in the shower. I mean really, how does your toothbrush end up in a toilet or a wine bottle in the stall?

4. Your laundry will be taken out of the machine

I don’t know who thought it would be logical to only have 4 washers and dryers for a building of 150 girls, but alas that is what we were given. It always seems that everyone decides to do laundry on the same day and the same time. More times than most, you will walk into the laundry room and find piles of clothes on top of the machines and all over the room, hoping that one of them isn’t yours. Advice to take from this- set a timer on your phone and don’t be that girl who decides to just not get her laundry until an hour later.

5. You will get sick

Now this is guaranteed for any freshman dorm at any college, but in Carolina, we all seem to get sick with the same sicknesses. This is probably due to the excessive amount of time we spend in spaces too close for comfort, all crammed in one car or on one bed watching “The Bachelor”. One week it’s mono, and the next it's strep and then pink eye (or in my case three weeks) but you’re bound to always know someone with some virus. Let’s keep spraying that Lysol ladies.

6. You have 40+ closets

No matter who you are or how many clothes you have, when it comes time to pick out an outfit for the night, it seems you have absolutely nothing. Lucky enough, either you walk down the hall or write in the group me asking for something as simple as a black crop top or something more peculiar like cat ears, and more times than not, you will have it within 5 minutes.

7. You will meet some truly amazing people

On the first day of school, you instantly meet 45 girls who will be there for you from August-May whether it's for something as intense as a shoulder to cry on, or as stupid as "Easy Mac" at 2 a.m.. Walk down the hall at any hour of the day, and mostly every door is open and you always have someone to either just say hi to, eat candy with, or to wake up from their slumber to tell them something stupid you did last night. You don’t realize the true benefit of dance parties and not having a common room until you realize the bonding and relationships it gives you. I couldn’t be more thankful for all the beautiful ladies I met this year on my hall and can’t imagine having lived anywhere else.