Every freshman dreams (and lowkey prays) that she’ll find a roommate that just gets her; a roommate that makes her feel like her tiny dorm room is home away from home.
Instead of getting one of those, I got two: Nidhi and Allison!
Over the course of the semester, our individual closets eventually evolved into one mega closet. Swapping clothes and forgetting which top is yours happens all too often in our room. While folding laundry for the umpteenth time this semester (out-of-state kids… sigh), I came up with a great idea for finals week – a challenge to dress each other!
Finals week is the week that all college students dread, even though it’s the week before you get a super long break from school. It is the week during which it is both socially acceptable and very common to roll out of bed and stay in pajamas all day, even though this isn’t necessarily an occurrence exclusive to finals week.
As I was dreading the five upcoming exams that I would have to take, I wondered if staying in comfortable, non-pajama clothes would make me feel more motivated and energized to study. Naturally, I had to drag my gals into this. We decided that for each person, the other two roommates would choose an outfit together. Here are the results:
Day One – Sunday:
We started off the week with lots of motivation. We were ready to take on our last day of classes and get on that study grind for finals week. Along with this academic motivation, came the determination to take care of ourselves! We put on sweats during the day and promised to go to the gym at night. Although our eagerness had worn off by the end of the day, I dropped by at a cute holiday meeting for Her Campus staffers and to my delight, got three free workout tanks! As soon as I returned to the room, tanks were picked and our determination was reinstated. Shout-out to Her Campus for encouraging us to work out with matching tank tops!
Day Two – Monday:
The last day of classes came around much more quickly than we thought it would. As excited as we were about dressing nicely and getting into this challenge, it was still a Monday. All three of us literally woke up an hour before our classes were scheduled to start. However, we stayed true to the challenge and took a couple of minutes to pick some outfits before snapping a picture and sprinting to class. I (left) was given a soft brown sweater with leggings and boots. Nidhi (center) was given a grey top and jeans, since she was going to McKeldin Library to study after class. Finally, Allison (right) was given a purple top and leggings. We all paired our outfits with a trusty pair of sneakers. It was a (literal) rude awakening to a Monday, but comfortable, nonetheless.
Day Three – Tuesday:
Ahh, reading day. This was the day we woke up, caught our breaths for a second, then began rushing to cram study our material. However, due to the dreary Monday we’d had, we ensured that all of us wore cute outfits. For this day, I wore a blue top with leggings. Nidhi was handed a similar top-and-jeans combination paired with a vest and a cute scarf. Allison wore a rusty sweater with leggings. To top it off, we all chose high boots for each other!
Surprisingly, not staying in pajamas kept me awake and motivated throughout the day, even though I was just in my floor lounge. Had I been in pajamas, I surely would have fallen asleep studying. When I asked Nidhi and Allison what their opinions were, they claimed that they felt very put together and ready to get a lot of work done, which they did! Overall, this challenge allowed us to have a very productive reading day.
Day Four – Wednesday:
The first day of finals hit us harder than we ever thought it would. Regardless, we were so happy with Tuesday’s results that we wanted to continue dressing in comfortable outfits. Allison and Nidhi gave me a nice maroon cardigan and beige jeans combination, an outfit that I had never put together before, despite having owned each article of clothing chosen for over a year. Nidhi was given dark jeans and a plaid shirt while Allison was given a pink satin top and leggings. We were able to effectively gauge one another’s moods and pick appropriate outfits.
We once again realized by the end of the day that we were incredibly productive. Adding makeup to the outfit only made us feel even more ready to take on the day and get our stuff done!
Day Five – Thursday:
As the last day of dressing each other for finals week, we woke up feeling incredibly tired and decided that we should treat ourselves to very comfortable outfits. We came up with the idea to wear Maryland gear, so we ended up choosing Maryland tops! This was a great way to end the challenge – some school spirit and classic black leggings.
Overall Thoughts:
The main thing that I noted throughout this short experiment is that we know each others’ styles really well. Even while feeling bummed out and “schlumped,” a term that Allison appropriately coined, we were able to assign each other outfits that fit our tastes and moods perfectly. Another thing we collectively realized is that feeling put together added to our determination to study hard and pass those exams. A final thing we realized, on a humorous note, is that we’ve accidentally stolen quite a few articles of clothing from one another!
We truly enjoyed this challenge because it was somewhat like a test to see how well we know each other. We hope that this challenge actually helps us ace our exams! Although we didn’t dress each other up in outfits that pushed our comfort zones (due to the fact that it is both finals week and very chilly outside), we know what’s coming up for the next time!