Recently, I moved from my room in “perfect” Few Quad to a single that opened up in Edens. Some of you may be asking, “Why would you do that to yourself?” or if you’re anything like my friends you’re thinking, “You don’t move to Edens, you get banished to Edens.” I actually dissed Edens in my last Her Campus article, calling it something of a labyrinth and declaring that I’d never go there. But here I am, welcoming Edens with open arms.
I didn’t really know what to expect when I first moved here. Though the people who don’t live in Edens trash talk it so much, I have heard a lot of good things from my friends who live here. Now that I’ve actually experienced both main quad and Edens for myself, here are the main problems I have encountered with my new home:
- Construction: There has been construction work directly outside my window from 9AM to 5PM every day. This is somewhat of a mixed blessing since there’s no way I’d wake up that early without it, but I’m simultaneously thinking “Come on! We’re on a college campus! No one wakes up this early in the morning. Can’t you do this over the summer?”
- Building Accessibility: The biggest problem I’ve had with Edens thus far is that I’m unable to access the 3rd and 4th floor of my building from the same staircase as the 1st and 2nd floor. Is this some sort of test to check if your IQ is high enough to live here? This isn’t MIT; can we please have some normal buildings? Nor is this the 60’s. No one comes here to begin with. You’re just making me more of a social exile by making the already far-far away buildings harder to access. It’s like I’m locked in a tower and my friends have to fight a dragon to get to me every time I have to give someone directions to my 3rd floor room.
There’s my rant. But, as I said earlier, I am one of those rare weirdos who chose to move to Edens by my own free will. So, of course I don’t think it’s that bad. Here are some reasons I like living here, and hopefully you fellow Edens-dwellers will feel slightly better about your living situation after hearing the pros:
- No one else likes it: The best part about Edens is the fact that no one ever wants to come here. That means it’s never too loud to get your work done and there are far less surprise visits from your friends. Fewer distractions means more focus on your work, which is why you’re here anyway.
- It’s just far enough from campus: It’s far enough from main quad to be its own world, yet close enough to not need a bus. It’s nice to have school and home separated by a 5-10 minute walk.
- It’s next to McLendon Tower: Where else can you get 24-hour real-food on campus? And, there’s a café literally on your way to class, making the five extra minutes you spend walking to class worth it, because you’d probably be stopping for coffee in Perkins anyway.
Living in Edens may not be the best situation to be in on Duke’s campus, but it is where a lot of us find ourselves sophomore year. Although it may not be perfect, there are worse things in the world than being stuck in Edens.