As a resident on campus at SUNY Albany, you usually live in one of two places: a low-rise or a tower. When I applied for housing I chose the tower, and it's one thing I regret each and every day as school continues for many reasons:

Constant Fire Drills

One here and there I can handle, but almost every day just pisses me off. Especially when it’s at three o’clock in the fucking morning. Excuse me, I'm trying to sleep here. Is that so much to ask for? Sorry I don’t feel like standing outside in the freezing cold when I could be bundled up in blankets in my bed. And the sad thing is it’s always jerks who think pulling the alarm is funny or idiots who don’t know how to smoke without setting it off. Seriously, just do it outside.

Shitty Elevators

I probably wouldn’t be late to class all the time if it didn’t take the elevator fifteen minutes to get to my floor. How can they be this slow? I will never understand. And when I finally do get on, it just so happens to decide to stop at every fucking floor on the way down. Like really?! Half the time there's not even anyone there. So basically instead of needing five minutes to get to class, I need to put aside twenty. And to make it ten times worse, there’s usually only one or two elevators working anyways which just fucks everything up even more.

Stairs of Hell

The main issue I find with the broken elevators, is that they cause me to have to take the stairs. Twenty whole flights of stairs. Now going down them is one thing, but going up is literally hell. By the time I get to floor ten, my legs are already aching, and that's only when I'm halfway there. Try doing that at five am. Guess I shouldn't feel guilty about skipping the gym though because the stairs are basically a workout.

Living on the Top Floors

I can’t even begin to describe how inconvenient it is to live on the 20th floor of a building. It’s cold outside and I want a sweater? Not worth the effort to go up and get one. Forgot something in my room? Too late now, guess I’ll have to go to class without it. Need a place for my friends to chill? Everyone is too lazy to trek all the way up there. Hungry AF and want food? Probably won’t even be hungry anymore by the time I get down there. You get the picture.

Laundry Struggles

Doing laundry sometimes just isn’t worth it. First of all, I’d have to go all the way up to my room, grab my shit, and lug it all the way back down to the Mezzanine where the machines are. Then half the time, there's nothing available so I end up needing to go back up and wait for the next machine and God only knows how long that’ll be. Then before I know it, the washer is overflowing and my clothes are locked inside. And don’t even get me started on how hot it is down there. I literally need to put on different clothes because it’s basically a sauna.

Lack of Air or Heat

Whenever I get up to my room, I find that it’s either boiling hot or freezing cold, which as you can imagine is extremely annoying. I’ll be wearing a heavy sweater all day, and then go up and need to change into a tank top, or I’ll be in a tank top and need a sweater. Why the temperature can’t correlate with the rest of the school I will never understand. At the moment, it’s usually too hot, but I’m sure as winter roles in I’ll regret wishing for higher air and less heat.

Water Outage

This one isn’t as common, but believe it or not losing water for even a few hours is a real pain in the ass. Imagine how it would feel to use the bathroom and then find out the toilet doesn’t flush. Or to get ready to take a shower just to be faced with the disappointment of nothing coming out of the faucet. And then it’ll hit me-I can’t brush my teeth, I can’t wash my hands, I can’t pee-how am I supposed to live like this? Never underestimate the importance of something as simple as running water.

So the moral of the story is don't live in State Tower. You'll regret it.