There’s a mouse––a grey lump of a thing scurrying across the stained carpet––in your room. You can smell the rank B.O. wafting from your roommate’s Everest-sized pile of laundry. Better yet, there’s a sock on the door handle. We all know what that means: sexiled.
It’s all great dinner conversation for years to come. But right now, you can’t even crack a smile.
Once you get over the boys above you jumping on their floor making your entire room shake, the hair coating the communal shower walls, and the cheery families and tour guides that give you up-downs on Saturday mornings when you’re in the middle of a walk of shame, you realize that residence halls aren’t all that bad.
I would consider myself a pro-dormer. I went to boarding school for high school, and spent my freshmen and sophomore years living in residence halls on Temple’s campus. What I learned after six years of it are the people you meet and the memories you have are all a part of the experience.
You learn how to hatch out issues with the people you live with. You learn how to share just about everything, from the microwave, to the bathroom, to any and all of the clothes in your closet (if you have friends like mine). You learn responsibility, like not losing your key at midnight when your roommate is softly snoring and won’t answer her phone to let you in. And, the best part, you create lifelong friendships.
I had the opportunity to choose between Morgan Hall and Johnson and Hardwick my freshman year. My friends always ask me why I chose J&H with it’s outdated rooms, communal bathrooms, and countless fire drills, compared to Morgan’s modern design, kitchen, private bathrooms, living space, and bedroom apartment with floor-to-ceiling windows. I used to joke that I already owned a pair of shower shoes from high school, so why not?
Though it had its disadvantages, I wouldn’t trade my experiences there. The friends I made are going to be the friends in my wedding, the friends at my 50th birthday, and hopefully my 80th.
Being a girl from Massachusetts, who barely knew where Bucks County is—let alone the flow of local high schools Temple attracts as a state school––I came in as a loner. I was fine with it because I knew I was living in a residence hall. I met one of my best friends during a fire drill the first night there.
In a residence hall, things happen where you’re forced into meeting people, and then, suddenly, the girl down the hall becomes your friend or the girl on the 8th floor is in one of your major classes.
And though residence halls might not be your thing, you all share one thing in common: living through it. You bond over embarrassing experiences, times you slept through your 9a.m. class, and dealing with the printer issues minutes before your five-page final paper is due.
Temple’s residence halls provide you with 24-hour security, as well as RAs and Peer Mentors that can lend you a hand or hear you out if your homesick or are struggling to find friends.
At the end of your one-year requirement living on campus, you might actually surprise yourself with how sad you are to leave it. My last night in J&H, my two best friends dragged our mattresses into my room and laid them down on the floor. We had a huge sleepover and cried when we had to split for the summer.
We go back to the J&H dining halls for brunch and reminisce on all that happened that year, and try to guess what the people living in our rooms this year are doing and thinking.
So, if you’re currently living in a residence hall, try to appreciate it for what it is. Soon, you might be missing it. There’s something special about the room you’re in now. Find out what it is, keep your head up, and enjoy the experience (mice, sweaty laundry, and all).
Of course, nothing beats sleeping in your own bed at home.
––Nathalie Cavallo