Our first time signing up for college housing sent my future roommate and I into a panic. We questioned everyone we knew who went to UNH to see where we should live. Common responses included, “Williamson and Christensen, it’s the dorm that gives you the best freshman year experience!”, “Congreve is where all the athletes live!” and… “Stoke is the party dorm. You don’t want to live there.” So, being the naïve, excited freshmen we were we put down the most notorious dorm at UNH. Stoke Hall was placed at the top of our list.
Two long years in Stoke later, my friends and I just signed our first lease for our apartment and the feeling is nothing less than bittersweet. We had our fair share of the unfortunate experiences with shower shoes, noisy nights, and microwavable dinners, but those are things that any college kid has to be exposed to. Stoke taught us things about ourselves, and made us appreciate the novelties when living with more than 600 other students. So before I leave dorm life forever, there are some things I’d like to thank my temporary and certainly humble abode for…
1.) Paper thin walls
Though this is a blessing and a curse, the conversations you hear on the other side of the wall can be extremely entertaining and often disturbing. There were times when I would be looking through the peep hole as my room mate simultaneously had her ears glued to the wall. Together we were the perfect eyes and ears of our floor.
2.) Location
Stoke is located in the heart of campus. It’s the perfect distance to all your academic buildings during the week, and steps away from Strafford Ave and apartments during the weekend! It’s 100 feet (if that) from Stillings dining hall. For business students, rolling out of bed 10 minutes before class is anything but stressful when Paul College is directly across the street.
3.) Communal Bathrooms
No, seriously. When you take shower shoes out of the equation there is nothing more fun than when all of your friends are brushing your teeth at the same time. With 7 sinks there is plenty of room for activities and it feels like a scene right out of a movie.
4.) Socials Hosted by RA’s
Free pizza? Free smoothies? Free candy? Yeah, I’m in.
5.) The White Wall Backdrop
An extra special thanks to Stoke for the millions of hallway pictures my friends and I have taken in front of the white, fluorescent walls. Though, the lighting was horrible and the pictures never came out quite how we wanted them to, we instagrammed them anyways and they are now tokens of our best memories.
6.) Hallway Hang Seshes
After a rough night the perfect cure was always slumping it in the hallway on the questionably stained rugs while obnoxiously making strangers play hopscotch over our legs.
7.) Wild Kitty
Stoke life wouldn’t be the same if you couldn’t walk out the back door to Wild Kitty to pick up a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream on any random night.
8.) Living with your BFFs
My friends and I wouldn’t have survived Freshman year if we hadn’t all landed on 3 Short. What started out as awkward introductions turned into friendships that we now can’t imagine our lives with out.