I won’t act like I haven’t enjoyed being home for the summer, but there are definitely some things I miss about the cubicle dorm I lived in for the past year. A lot of people hate on dorm life way too hard. Sure, it’s not five-star living, but it wasn’t all bad. While I’ll never willingly live in a dorm again, that doesn’t mean I can’t get nostalgic. Here are three things I miss about dorm life:
My Bed
A vast majority of people in dorms will complain about their tiny twin-sized beds, but I actually really enjoyed my dorm bed. Since I was living in basically a walk-in closet, I needed to loft my bed in order to maximize the amount of space I had. Although my face was pretty much at the ceiling, there was just something extremely comfortable about my bed. While at any point during the night, an aggressive twitch could launch me off either side of the bed, I’ve never felt more secure in my entire life.
In all honesty, I think the reason why I loved my dorm bed so much was because it was right above my desk. Anytime I was sick of doing an assignment, I could literally just climb up a ladder and nap for a couple of hours to avoid my problems. Probably wasn’t the best habit to develop throughout the school year, but I didn’t fail out so I think it’s alright. Despite all the 4:00 am interruptions on the weekends, my dorm bed provided me with some of the greatest and most necessary sleep of my entire life. And for that, I will forever be grateful.
Hiding Booze from the RA
I lucked out and had probably one of the greatest RAs of all time because he really didn’t care what we did as long as no one chugged a bottle of hand sanitizer again (true story). But, we still had to make somewhat of an effort to hide our booze. Every time I would return to school from a break, I’d make sure to bring back a couple of cases with me. However, we all know that you can’t just walk into a freshman dorm with an ungodly amount of Natural Light. So, you’d have to get creative with suitcases or laundry bins – or just sprint up to your room as fast as possible.
By the end of the year, hiding alcohol was a nuisance. But, the first couple of times you sneak booze into your dorm will be one of the greatest adrenaline highs of your entire life. The risk of getting in trouble with campus law enforcement all to smuggle a handle of Tito’s up to your room is well worth it, even if that handle only lasts for a single night. Plus, I was too Nelk to get written up anyways.
Hanging with the Boys
Some of my favorite memories of freshman year have absolutely nothing to do with going out to the bars or a frat party. The random weekday nights when you and the fellas crowd into a tiny dorm room with incredibly insufficient air conditioning and just chop it up while watching Impractical Jokers were the absolute best. After freshman year, you and your dorm buddies might all be living in different fraternity houses, so it really is a special time that you only get to experience once.
Obviously, you’ll see the boys from your dorm again throughout college. But I think everyone would say it’s definitely not the same. Maybe you’ll have a couple of classes together or run into each other on a Friday night, but never again will you wrestle on your filthy dorm room floor to decide who has to go down the seven flights of stairs to get the McDonald’s DoorDash order. So, to all the incoming freshmen out there, appreciate these moments while you’ve got them.
