Dorm life is definitely an experience you will never forget. Late nights stumbling home from Midtown, 4 a.m. pizza delivery and the added bonus of living in space that is modeled after a jail cell.
We’ve all faced the struggle of finding twin XL sheets, hiding bottles from the RA and praying our roommates would just go away. It’s the little things that you remember, and for some, the things that drive you away.
I was one of those freshman discontented with the dorm lifestyle. My sophomore year, I moved off campus to enjoy the freedoms of apartment life.
Well, honey, let me tell you, apartment life is not all it’s cracked up to be. Freedom has a hefty price, and I’m not sure it was worth the dent in my wallet (or my sleep schedule).
Why?
Via: Flickr
The UF bus system will screw you over real nice.
Living on campus means having the privilege of rolling out of bed 15 minutes before class and showing up dazed and confused. Trust me, it’s a privilege.
Before this year, I had never ridden a bus in my life. Think of it this way, we all have that one friend who constantly flakes on plans and can be kind of a bitch, and yet we keep her around because it’s really just easier that way. Well, the bus is now that friend.
Oh, you woke up late for class? You’re screwed.
The bus is running late again? You’re screwed.
You made it on time and the bus is coming! Yes! Oh wait, it’s full. You guessed it, you’re screwed.
Waking up for class is now an hour long process. You have to leave yourself enough time to miss a bus and still make it to class in time. The result? Your anthro section starts at 10:40 and you’re waiting at the bus stop at 9:45.
And that, my friend, sucks.
Shout out to my mom for always cleaning the toilet without crying.
One of the stereotypical complaints about dorm life is the bathroom situation. Sharing a bathroom with 60 girls is gross, don’t get me wrong, but what some of us (myself included) extremely overlooked and underappreciated was the fact that the bathroom is cleaned on the daily.
A nice lady comes in every morning to change the toilet paper, clean the sinks, rinse off the showers and pick your nasty clump of hair out of the drain. Your apartment will not come with that luxury and I doubt you can afford a cleaning service while living on instant ramen noodles. I’m still waiting on my winning Powerball numbers to come through, so for now, I’ll be cleaning my bathroom myself, which is something I cringe at the thought of.
Thank you, cleaning ladies, for all that you put up with. You are the real MVPs.
Just accept it now: The landlord does not care.
Your sink is clogged? That’s nice, give us 7 to 10 business days, we’re really backed up. You need a new part for your air conditioning? That’ll take 2 weeks for delivery. Your apartment is ON FIRE? Call us in the morning.
Landlords are busy people, or so they claim to be. When you have a problem, you can bet your ass that 10 other residents are complaining too. So long are the days of putting in a maintenance requests with the university and seeing results within a few hours. Your landlord already has you in a binding contract for the next 12 months and don’t think he or she doesn’t take advantage of that fact.
If you want something fixed, you’re really shit out of luck.
Party for one?
Life in an apartment can get pretty lonely.
Sure, you have your roommates, but it’s pretty likely that they won’t be there 24/7. It’s even more likely that you don’t want to see them 24/7.
Living in a dorm provides you with a variety of so many different people to hang out with. Sick of hanging out with Amy? Jennifer is right down the hall and she doesn’t complain about her boyfriend when you’re just trying to eat your Pub sub in peace. Having a life crisis? Your RA may be trained to sniff out pot from outside your room, but he or she is also trained in the art of listening to you cry about that physics test you failed.
Sometimes it’s nice to have the option of going to a late night pizza party in your dorm’s kitchen or getting away from your roommate when she’s being a crazy bitch. That sense of community is something that students definitely take for granted.
I don’t mean to say that living off campus doesn’t have its perks, because it does.
Having a door between myself and my roommates is a blessing and having a laundry machine within 10 feet has drastically decreased my procrastination. (Maybe not drastically, but at least I don’t buy underwear to avoid doing laundry anymore!)
The point is, students who live in a dorm and complain about it need to shut the hell up. If you don’t like having someone clean your morning hangover vomit off the floor, fine. Move off campus and do it yourself. Maybe then these crying freshmen will realize that living off campus is not all that it’s cracked up to be.
Featured photo courtesy of: Unsplash
