Welcome to the New Version of Dorm Life

 You've Upgraded to Carpeting and a Walk in Closet

First off I would like to start this post with a quick rant about how it is October and yet I have been experiencing 90 degree weather in the mid-Atlantic state I live in. I do not approve and want my fall. I want to be able to eat my pumpkin bread and lattes in sweaters and jackets. I even had to turn my air conditioning on for the first time in a month this week! Luckily the weather report says that it will cool down considerably this week and I will be happy again. Also Tree House of Horror tonight was pretty awesome. Anyway the real reason I am writing today it to compare living in an apartment to a college dorm room. 

I lived all four years of my college life in a dorm (or at least a school sponsored room of some sort). My first dorm was very loud and stereotypical for freshmen entering college. Everyone knew what everyone was doing at every moment of the day and there was always puke in the bathroom on Monday morning (it was a hall style bathroom). My second and third dorms were a lot quieter, except the weekends that the triple would have parties in their rooms and we’d have to throw the boys out of the girl’s hall bathroom. It was annoying when they would walk in while one of us was taking a shower.  It was also annoying when people would set off the fire alarm at all times of the night because they were drunk baking (I feel I have mentioned this before in this blog). 

My final dorm was possibly my favorite. I lived in a house on campus with six other people. It was pretty sweet and even parties in the surrounding lodges (that’s what we called them) were not super disruptive. We had to clean it ourselves and make sure everyone was up to speed on everyone else’s TV schedule, but it worked out well. 

Apartment life is not that different from dorm life. Though I no longer have to make a dorm agreement, there are still rules that I follow. Everyone minds their own business, but I can still hear the guy above me flush his toilet, among other activities. I have a phone number that I can call at anytime to have things fixed and they still take their sweet time to do it (unless you burst into tears on the phone because your toilet decided to “roar” at you, then they get their butts to your place right away to fix it). Instead of RAs, I have a land lady/lord.

The only time I really notice people are when they slam their doors on the way out of the building. I also notice the person who lives above me. The first guy I called mysterious footstep guy because he would wake me up at 6am every morning with his stomping around. Now I have “squeak squeak guy.” His name is an inside joke between me and my roommate. For those of you, who do not get it, do not worry. I am a little embarrassed to write any more about it.

I do miss the friendlier atmosphere of dorm life. People just seem to “busy” as adults to really care when people move in and out of this place. I also have a lot more cleaning to do. I had to clean my own room and the lodge at school, but cleaning staff was available to do the hall bathrooms. At least I picked up on a good cleaning rotation from living with six other girls. I also still have posters everywhere, though I have managed to upgrade to a few really pictures, that also look like posters.

So I have come to the conclusion that dorm life has the sole purpose of getting young adults ready for apartment life. If a college student does not manage to accidentally burn the place down or start a biology experiment under their bed, they should have no problem adjusting. I have actually discovered that I am much more likely to clean now that I live in a much bigger space (with more places for me to shove thing out of the way).

 Now if only it could be October all the time...