I am currently in my sophomore year of college and this is now my second year living on campus. Both my freshman and sophomore year, I lived in Olson Hall, which was my living-learning community. Coming from a small high school and transitioning to a big university, I was worried I wouldn’t make any friends. Living on campus was where I met all of my closest friends. One thing that living in a dorm taught me was that no matter your major, everyone is struggling to grasp the workload. I didn’t know what my workload was going to be like but it was nothing like I expected. Being surrounded by my friends, who I had some classes with, helped me create better time management skills and a better work ethic. I was more motivated to do my work and put in more effort when I would study with my friends.
Another thing that living on campus taught me was how to live with a roommate. Regardless if you and your roommate are best friends or are just coexisting, learning how to live with someone is important. Living with a roommate teaches a person how to be respectful of other people’s stuff, how to handle conflict and how to get along with someone you may not know. I’m an only child, so growing up I never had to share a room with anyone. I went to sleepaway camp where I would sleep in a cabin with 10 other people for seven weeks so I had some sense of what it would be like to live with other people, but living with just one person is different. It’s taught me that living with someone is difficult but manageable, and how to handle conflict in the best way possible.
When I started college, one of the things I was most looking forward to was living in a dorm. My whole life I had heard stories about what it was like to live on campus, whether it was from family or T.V. shows, it always sounded fun. I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to live on campus, instead of having to commute from home. Living in Olson helped me make my best friends at college, stay motivated to get good grades and to get involved. Without my residence hall I wouldn’t have attended any events on campus, gotten involved in the community and made friends with people in my major. The transition from high school to college is difficult, there is no avoiding it, but living on campus helped ease that anxiety and nerves about going to college.