I should be no stranger to dorm life. I mean for most of my life, I’ve shared a room with someone. Typically that someone was my younger sister, but it happened so it counts. The only time I didn’t share a room was during high school, when my brother left for college and my sister moved most of her stuff into his room. She would live there for most of the year, excluding when he would come back for winter break and summer vacation. Those were some good times.
But after spending a month, living in the hallowed halls of Spellman Hall – I’ve realized something. Sharing a room and living in a dormitory are two very different things. They share a lot of similarities – but they are still very very different. Here are ten things that set living on campus apart from living at home.
- It’s a lot like summer camp – you get to meet a lot of cool people, get some life experience, learn a few things about yourself, eat questionable amounts of food, and eventually go home. This just happens to be the type of camp where you’re trying to get ready for the rest of your life – no arts and crafts required.
- The lack of responsibility is both tantalizing and terrifying. According to fellow writer, Meg, “a lot of people are really good at keeping it all together and others are like “@#$* it let’s get drunk every night. At home, you just can’t do that.” Anything is possible, as long as you don’t pull the fire alarm at 1 am.
- Crazy stuff is going to happen such as walking into your room at 3am only to find your roommate dying your friend’s armpits purple. Or deciding to go for a stroll to the haunted chapel at midnight with your friends. It just will. Get used to it.
- Food. Remember food? It’s that stuff your mom used to make for you three times a day (or just two if you always bought lunch as a kid). You’re responsible for that now, whether you have to go buy groceries or make the three minute walk to the dining hall just in time for breakfast. You can have candy for dinner if you really want to – all of it’s up to you now. Though everyone misses the occasional home cooked meal.
- Roommates – I’m used to sharing a room, but some students weren’t as lucky as I was to get share a room for 17 years. People get to learn how to share a space with someone else for the first time in their lives. Boundaries are fun! The quality of a roommate can vary too – sometimes you get a really great roommate and sometimes you don’t. This of course doesn’t happen if you lucked out and got assigned a single.
- You’re constantly surrounded by people – people you like, people you hate, people you haven’t even met yet. That’s great! You don’t have to worry about having to work around gas prices and schedules, so it’s easier to hang out. But then you also don’t get to retreat into your house after people mentally exhaust you. It’s possible to lock your door and put some headphones on, but it doesn’t necessarily have the same effect as going home.
- You gotta keep your room clean! Some people just don’t realize how often you actually have to clean your room. It’s not just the place where you sleep anymore – it’s also where you have your friends over and where you sometimes eat and study and live! No one’s going to remind you to do it either.
- The lack of animal cuddles is astounding. Sadly the only type of pets you can have on campus include fish and more fish. Unless you want to end up with a lot of dead fish – which is a grim prospect – it’s probably best not to cuddle them. Sometimes pictures are just not enough. (Though therapy dogs will be available for petting during the week before finals, sources tell me).
- You don’t get that guarantee that the bathrooms are going to be squeaky clean. It makes a lot of people miss the days when they didn’t have to wear flip-flops every time they take a shower.
- You never run out of things to do on campus as opposed to living at home and having to dig for social plans. There is literally always something going on – organizations such as the Mentor Center or Residence Hall Association throw some really cool events. There are flyers everywhere.
So living on campus is not like living at home. It’s exciting to finally be away from home for the first time, but it can be hard. I was really homesick the first two weeks of school, and now while I’ve adjusted to campus life, sometimes it’s still hard. While talking to people about this subject, we all agreed that sometimes it just depends on the day. On good days, it’s great to be living on campus! It’s amazing! But on bad days, a lot of us just really want to go home. Seeing how we’re only a month in, it’s going to be interesting to see how life in the dorms progress.
Maybe it will be good. Maybe it will be horrifying. A lot has happened within one month alone, but as Lia, a friend of mine who attends Notre Dame, put it, “…it’s oddly satisfying coming back to my room and knowing that it’s all mine.” I can’t disagree.