I can remember the first time I moved into the dorms as an Ohio University freshman. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and for the first time in my young life, I truly tasted freedom. It was an exhilarating and satisfying concept.
That feeling has not lasted as I enter my third year.
While most students, and the majority of my friends, were moving into apartments and houses, I was moving back into a 14-foot box. But being a poor college student and lucky enough to have a best friend willing to stick out dorm life with me, I put on a brave face and entered Lincoln’s hallowed halls with my head held high.
But it only took seven little words to bring my resolve crashing back to planet Earth.
“Are you a freshman or a sophomore?”
From this spurred the list of “All the Things Holly Hates About Being a Junior In the Dorms.” Below are just a few excerpts from the growing list of grievances that seem to be compiling on my desk.
1. Floor Meetings
Floor meetings are important, and I understand this on some sub-level of my conscious thoughts. But after sitting through more than my fair share of community agreements, Halloween rules and check in and checkout procedures, things start to get a little redundant.
This does not change.
I had half a mind to skip this year’s opening meeting, but better judgment and an innate sense of responsibility had me dragging my feet down the hallway to join the rest of my floor mates for the hour-long session. And all we really came away with was a shared agreement not to use the hand dryers in the bathroom after 10 p.m. Not exactly the way I pictured spending my first afternoon back in Athens.
2. Halloween Wristbands
They are too itchy, too tight and way too hideous.
And yet because I chose to live in the dorms for yet another year, one of the dreaded OU Halloween wristbands will be slapped on my wrist. And it’s not like I just have to walk down to the lobby and flash my student I.D. card for a resident assistant. Instead, I will more than likely be given the honor of waiting in a 20-minute line during the short hours when the wristbands actually become available.
But because safety is a huge concern for OU faculty and staff, I do understand the significance of wearing these strips of plastic for this particular weekend. The extra discomfort is worth the added security for the students.
I just wish the wristbands didn’t go hand-in-hand with the assumption of “campus newbie.”
#3. Community Bathrooms
Freshmen don’t even like community bathrooms, so as a junior I feel that I can comfortably say the idea of another year spent showering in one of those tiny stalls has me cringing.
I just want to shower in an actual private bathroom, where I don’t have to wear shower shoes or carry a plastic bin with everything I need. I want to be able to step under the spray and not feel as though someone is trying to break through my skull with a jackhammer.
I’m honestly getting too old to deal with anything less.
#4. The Tiny Rooms
I don’t care how many posters hang on the walls, or what kind of patterned comforter gets thrown on your bed, living in the dorms will always feel like living in a jail cell. And when you add another person into the mix, the already small space feels even more closed in.
I am fortunate enough to share this tiny space with one of my best friends, so it makes the close quarters a little more bearable. But I’m sure she would agree that it would be nice just having to share a kitchen and living room rather than our bedrooms, workspaces and storage units.
After all, neither of us are very friendly during finals week.
Realistically, living in the dorms for another year won’t be the worst thing in my college life. Finals, internships and a full schedule will take care of that all by themselves.
But that won’t stop me from being consumed with jealousy every time I visit my fellow juniors at their off campus apartments.