College Life

 

I’m not sure why the last couple days I’ve been stuck in the past. That’s how it feels anyway. Maybe because College seemed so easy… or maybe it was the phone call from Camille that brought back the memories. My {step}daughter is a Freshman in high school. She’s at the part of her life when grades totally matter. When she’s starting to think about her future. Starting to make plans about going to college (or not, but right now yes).

A lot can change in four years. Right now she has college narrowed down to two choices. One is in state, one is way out of state. But either choice she has plans to live at home (the out of state is with family). If there’s one thing I keep trying to stress to her, promise me she’ll live in the dorms at least 1 year. Bam! Seriously though, you learn a lot from living in the dorms, and that is one way you make those lifetime friends.

College Years

I am an only child. Once upon a time back when I was in the 8th grade we had a German Foreign Exchange student live with us. I think at the time I was quite jealous because she was a senior and got to do a lot more than I felt like I did… but either way, I’m pretty sure I was jealous to the point I hated her. Shame on me, I know.

That was also the point in my life I had to share my parents with someone else and I wasn’t really fond of that. When I was younger I wanted a baby brother or sister to the point I tried to convince my parents to adopt one. They didn’t bite. So this was as close as I got and I hated it. I was also 12 at the time she came. We won’t share pictures of me then……

Going to college was a real eye-opener! WOW! But I wouldn’t change it for the world. And while I hated living in the dorms in a way, it was the best experience of my life.

Somehow I was placed in the handicapped room my Freshman year. That was interesting! The closets were lowered, the sink was lowered, the closet doors were hard instead of accordion style.

Oh and we had community bathrooms. Not 3-4 people to a bathroom, no an entire floor to a bathroom. I think there might have been 10 stalls and 6 showers. You had to share. And the showers… if someone flushed the toilet, you had to yell flushing if someone was in the shower or you burned the he** out of them. There were signs on the back of every bathroom door for those who were visiting our floor so they hopefully would yell “Flushing.”

I can’t stress enough the importance of living in the dorms!

Like I mentioned yesterday… I met some really great friends. These photos are kind of focusing on 2 but I have more than that. These two were just my partners in crime. We were always together…. until we weren’t but we won’t focus on that.

Our dorms were every other floor boys, every other floor girls. At 10 pm Sunday through Thursday you were to be off the opposite sexes floor until 8 am the next morning. During the day you could walk around freely.

One night we had a huge card game going in the lobby of the boy’s floor and we all got written up because it was after 10 pm and the girls were still on the guy’s floor. Whoops.

Another night we got caught in the guy’s room after 10 pm. This was after we were written up the week before playing cards. The RA knew we were there so he placed his chair in the middle of the hallway and sat, waiting to catch us leaving. He even said he’d wait all night if that’s what it took. There were 4 girls on the floor for sure (I was one of them. That’s how I knew).

Eventually, the guys held a blanket up, ran down the hallway to the RA, then down the hallway to the exit door (the stairs) and back into their room. The RA said that was the best he’d ever seen, he was going to bed, and make sure the girls leave the floor tonight. The next day we got a nice “talking” to but not written up. I’m still not sure what happened when you got written up.

That’s just it…

You don’t get the true college experience if you don’t live in the dorms. Point blank.

Another time I wound up sharing my twin sized bed with a friend because she had a horrible break up, was balling her eyes out. At that time she didn’t have a roommate and didn’t want to be alone.

Or the night that same friend wound up… drunk… and we refused to let her sleep by herself. We put her on a blowup couch (deflated the back), and then put a tote box at the end so her feet had something to lay on. That way she was close to the floor if she rolled off, but someone was around her in case she got sick. Again, no roommate.

These experiences you don’t have when you don’t live on campus. Getting that same friend into the dorms that night, while drunk was entertaining. I drove her home (DD, always). I had to walk her across campus and all she wanted to do was sing at the top of her lungs. Then I had to quietly get her into the dorm which was hard because again, she still wanted to sing at the top of her lungs. She and I both had an 8 am class.

Every morning we’d wake up and go eat breakfast together and then go off to our classes. We (my roommate and I) knew someone needed to get her up for class the next morning so keeping her in our room made that easier. The next morning I got her up, she went and got dressed, and we went to breakfast. I got as much food in her as I could.

I could go on…

but I won’t. The whole point of my story here is you don’t get the true college experience if you don’t live in the dorms. There is good and there is bad. It helps you grow as a person, an individual, a human being. You know as opposed to like an alien or something… I don’t know.

p.s. I’m a rule follower, not a rule breaker so getting written up about killed me! Luckily nothing happened… maybe it was because it was a first-time offense or maybe because that RA was leaving a week later. Maybe more of a scare tactic…