We’ve heard it a million times: Dorm life is an essential part of the college experience, and though it’s not always pleasant, it’s where you make some of your best memories, meet some of your best friends, etc., etc. While these happy thoughts might be true for some people, most collegiettes know the truth — that dorm life is the WOAT. Here are some all-too-real struggles that come with living in the resident halls.
1. Roommates are always in your space
Having a roommate might be fun for the first week of college, when you’re unsure of how the semester will go and you miss your family. Maybe your roommate is your best friend and you’re reading this article and thinking I’m completely wrong about everything because you absolutely love when your bestie doesn’t shower for three days and then forgets to take the trash out for a month. Trust me, roommates are almost never ideal, especially when you’re living in a 10-by-10 space with bunkbeds.
2. Your room is never clean because of shared space
If you think your room will ever be clean, you are so wrong. Maybe you clean your side of the room every Wednesday because you only have one class that day, but your roommate never cleans her side of the room because she is always busy lying in bed and playing on her phone. How can you politely tell your roommate to clean her disgusting side of the room because it’s starting to smell like feet in your dorm? It gets tricky because you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Vacuuming under her feet while she is spilling crumbs from her Chik-fil-a nuggets is a good hint that you want to keep things clean.
3. Eating healthy = the ultimate struggle
In a traditional style dorm, there is nothing but two beds and two desks in a room. There is no kitchen. While every freshman is trying to fight the freshman fifteen and eat healthy, it’s so hard to eat healthy when the only food you can realistically keep in your room are packaged, dry foods. I want to be able to keep fruits and vegetables in my room and be able to cook things and have a balanced diet. The reality is that I do a lot of ordering food and eating fast food because I have no other way of eating.
My options are to pay $9 to eat in a dining hall that has wilted iceberg lettuce and soggy pizza or to go to my dorm and eat a granola bar. Eating on campus as a student living in a dorm is increasingly more difficult because the university doesn’t make it easy for students to eat healthy and affordably.
4. Having bad days and calling your mom to cry is impossible because your roommate is always a witness
Sometimes we have bad days. It happens to everyone, but when it happens you are going to want to call your mom and cry. You really can’t lay in your bed crying with your mom on the phone when your roommate in sitting in her bed on her phone. It is the worst thing on the planet when you just need to let your tears pour and you can’t because your roommate in lingering in your room and isn’t exactly a shoulder to cry on.
5. Sleeping is rarely a possibility when your roommate has a love affair with Midtown every night of the week
It’s fine if you have a roommate that likes to go out, but if you have a 9:35 class on Monday morning and your roommate is thriving in Fats until 3 a.m. on Sunday night and coming home absolutely belligerent, it’s a little problematic. Taking care of your drunk roommate is one thing, but taking care of your drunk roommate when you have an early class the next day is too much. When your roommate’s going out schedule interrupts your education, that is when there is a problem.
6. Try studying in your room when your roommate wants to take a nap at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday
The best place to get school work done is your dorm room. The library is all fine and good until Jeremy from your Wildlife class spots you from across the third floor at West and wants to catch up. Your dorm room is a safe and quiet space to pump out as much work as possible as quickly as you can. What happens when you come back from class to do some homework at 2 p.m. and see your roommate taking a nap but you really need to finish an assignment? You type quietly, of course. But nevertheless, your roommate wakes up out of her precious slumber to tell you that your typing is too loud and you need to stop. No more homework in your room!
7. You want to have friends over to get ready for game day? Good luck — you only have one mirror and shitty lighting.
So game days roll around and you and your friends all want to get ready together, but where do you get ready? You have one full length mirror, one desk mirror, and a communal bathroom. You also have florescent lights, a lamp and minimal plugs. Your friends also all live in dorms. There goes your amazing plans for getting ready together! One game day, you’ll be getting ready with 30 of your least favorite people in a communal bathroom at 8 a.m.
8. You want to have a get-together before an event on a Friday night?
Nice try — every one of your friends lives in a dorm, and RA’s are always there.
There is an event happening on a Friday night so all your friends want to come over before you go out. Good luck! Your RA is knocking on your door telling you to keep the noise down. In the meantime, your roommate is making everyone uncomfortable by sitting in her bed on her phone while all your friends are over. There is also no place for anyone to sit because you live in a dorm and your only furniture is your bed. As a whole, the night is going poorly because your dorm experience is sooo bad.
9. You want to take a nice peaceful shower after a hard exam?
Not going to happen because Suzy-sings-a-lot is jamming to Brad Paisley as loud as she can at 10:30 p.m. with no shower shoes on, being as inconsiderate as she can.
After your difficult exam, you go back to your dorm and want to shower. You walk your shower caddy and your towel to the communal bathroom and wait 15 minutes for the shower to heat up. Once you finally start showering, another girl begins showering in the stall next to you. All is fine until she turns on her Pandora Radio on her phone and begins to blast the “Country Hits” station and sings to every single song. Try decompressing and relaxing when some girl is belting the words to “T-shirt” by Thomas Rhett. It just isn’t fun to share a bathroom with 30 other people.
What else do you know (and not love) about dorm life? Do the pros outweigh the cons? Share your dorm experiences and thoughts with us in the comments below!