Moving away from your lifelong home and going off to college is always a nerve-racking experience, and this feeling only intensifies when you leave an average household to stay at an on-campus dorm. Leaving the commodity of living with family and moving in with virtual strangers is quite an unsettling experience, but it is also an event that could potentially define your college years. At the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus, this is the experience for the student-residents at La Residencia Campus.
“La Resi” or “ResiCampus” as it is known as on-campus is (in)famous for many reasons. However, the main reason is due to the rather unconventional living conditions the dorm provides. Sharing a two-bedroom apartment with five people and a kitchen with about 30 more people is inevitably chaotic. Accustoming yourself to living surrounded by people, routine inspections, and a series of restricted items (like a toaster, for example) results in the residence subscribing to its own social norm.
As “La Resi” has its own definition of normality, living here will often feel as if one is living in a simulation separate from average everyday experience. One aspect that defines the social norm here is that sharing basically becomes a religious habit. This custom extends itself onto convenient practices like sharing cooking utensils or clothes, but it also reaches the extent in which you begin to share life-long habits and even mid-semester breakdowns with most of your friends. As it is described by many residents, “Resi Culture” is composed by shared struggles, like opening your window with a can or being late to class despite living on campus, but overall these experiences are the factor that strengthens your bonds with your roommates, your neighbors, and your friends.
Despite all of the inconveniences that define living on campus, life in “La Resi” is an incomparable experience. The friendships created while living here are based on a unique bond that you can’t really create otherwise. Besides connecting with people on a different level, you also have the chance to connect with the university itself. Being able to call your university home creates a different kind of appreciation towards your alma mater. Overall, living in “ResiCampus” becomes a life-defining experience in a sense that is exclusive to the dorm’s residents.