Table of Contents:
1. Tips and Things I Learned
2. Room Set-Up and Agreements with Roommate(s)
3. Budgeting Time and Keeping up with Homework
4. Food
5. Trips and Experiences
6. Mail and Packages
7. Pets
8. Roommate Problems etc.
9. Packing
10. Saying Goodbye for Four Months!!
Okay, here goes!!
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1. TIPS AND THINGS I LEARNED:
- You share everything including space. Girls from the upper floor lost their kitchen privileges and decided to come down to our floor to cook. They also stole my stuff to cook. It turned into me putting a lock on my cabinet, throwing the food they made into the trash and putting up what felt like dozens of sticky notes telling them to stop cooking in our kitchen before they actually stopped.
This also means you share the bathroom- stalls, showers, sinks. The showers generally accumulate lots of human hair. Its gross. I always cleaned mine out. I also got to know the cleaning woman which makes you want to keep things as clean as you can.
- Get to know your floor cleaning woman or man. I was on an all girls floor so we had a woman.
- Don't become best friends with your roommate. It will end badly. I will go into this more in 8.
- People will steal your stuff. I've had my kitchen stuff stolen so many times and then I had some bathroom stuff stolen. Not ok. Or fun.
- This isn't high school. If you were a loser or unpopular like me you will be fine. If you were popular, good luck. The world stops revolving around you. I saw a lot of girls who used to be popular in high school have a pretty tough time.
- Your dorm room is small. Don't bring everything from home. It won't fit.
- Weeknights try to get to bed around 11:00 pm if you have an 8:30. I didn't second semester, my first class was at noon but you can't sleep until 11:30 and quickly get ready. Be productive! I would wake up at 9:00 and get breakfast with one of my friends before she had her 10:40 class.
- Weekend nights stay up as late as you want as long as it is a reasonable time. Sometimes I would go to bed at 3:00 am which was fine because I could sleep in later.
- If you are a makeup and hair freak like me, realize you can't bring all your makeup and hair stuff to college. Pack a travel makeup case. I bought mine from Sephora. It's pretty big and roomy.
- Buy those Sterilite plastic drawer sets from Walmart to go under your bed.
- Speaking of your bed, either loft it or have it up to the highest rung for more storage space.
- If I relived my freshman year with the same roommate I would have lofted my bed. You need some 'you' space and I never had that. Which gets REALLY bad if things start getting rough.
- Buy a clip light for the foot or head of your bed which will clip onto the dorm bed and can be turned on when your roommate goes to bed but you are still awake.
- Be open minded about absolutely everything.
The lock on my cabinet in the kitchen (check to make sure this is allowed!)
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2. ROOM SET-UP AND AGREEMENTS WITH ROOMMATE(S)
Whether you think you and your roommate will be besties or not plan and sign the roommate agreement your RA (resident advisor- an upperclassman who lives in the hall and oversees stuff). Or create your own if your RA doesn't have one for you to sign to. Make sure you create it together!
Here is an example (you can use it):
- No boys spending the night.
- Keeping the room reasonably clean at all times.
- Split alone time in the room evenly. We each get one hour alone in the room each afternoon/ evening (plan when this time would happen before signing the contract).
- Don't use/ take the other person's stuff without express permission for the occasion.
Then sign it!
As far as setting up the room goes, its pretty easy just make sure you agree on where everything goes. My room only had one window. I thought we were going to share it but my roommate had other plans. A few months later we moved things around and I got the window. I tried to share but she took her stuff off the window sill.
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3. BUDGETING TIME AND KEEPING UP WITH HOMEWORK
This is difficult! I don't party. At all. Period. But plenty of my friends do. They had trouble at times keeping up with homework and planning their time accordingly to get it done. Your time becomes budgeted in college between four categories:
- Sleep
- Food
- Homework
- Friends
To some, friends take priority. However homework and sleep should. Well, and food, which becomes less important as exams approach. Also, as exams come up, food and friends blend into one. Your break from studying becomes eating food while hanging out with friends and yes, talking about exams. It is quite a dismal time on campus. There are quiet hours so you can't be insanely loud or anything.
Anyways, write down all homework that you have- when it is assigned! You also should then write a list of homework assignments you are going to tackle each day, so when you are assigned a huge paper or project at the beginning of a semester you can get it done bit by bit and when you get reminded the day before its due you aren't pulling an all nighter.
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4. FOOD
Commons food is good. In fact at my school it is so good that people from in town come out and eat it. However I love to cook so there are some times I will just cook with like three ingredients while I scavenge for more food. About once a month I have a ladies dinner where two of my best friends have dinner in my hall that I make. Its a ton of fun! They help and bring ingredients and we eat in my floors study room.
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5. TRIPS AND EXPERIENCES
I went on two general field trips, one special one and one very very special one. I went on one in October that went to a farm. It was just fun. The other one was going to see the Dahli Lama and hear him talk. That was also in October and pretty amazing!
I volunteered my life in the fall for the Obama campaign and got to meet Joe Biden one day before the election. I met him and got to talk to him. Of course I cried. I am pathetic and fully aware. :)
And in January of course a small group of students (part of college democrats) went to the Inauguration. I go to school in a southern state so college republicans have a much larger following.
Take advantage of trips you can go on! It's always fun and a learning experience!
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6. MAIL AND PACKAGES
Getting anything in the mail from your family gets exciting! However one time I got to the mail room and had what felt like zillions of package slips. That. Was. Not. So. Much. Fun. Especially the carrying everything back. I thought I was going to cry. Anyway, ask for care packages from family members instead of birthday presents so you get a box of stuff with practical things.
CRAZY amount of package slips!
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7. PETS
I am a pet lover. I LOVE PETS!!! At home we have a dog and I own a rabbit so of course I got the only thing I could have which was a fish. I got two goldfish. Make sure you check the schools website first to see what you can and can't have in your dorm room. A girl down the hall from me had a duck. Yes, your vision is working, I said a duck. However please, please, please have a plan if this animal lives longer than when you are going to be at college. I had a friend who would take it because she lived twenty minutes away, and my school has a program which will take your fish and find a new home for your scaly friend. DO NOT JUST FLUSH YOUR FISH WHEN THE YEAR ENDS. Both of my fish died before the school year ended. One I buried (illegally) and the other I flushed. There are all these rules about not burying a fish but I couldn't imagine flushing him.
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8. ROOMMATE PROBLEMS ETC.
My roommate and I started out as best friends. I think a lot of people expect that too. Then in January someone I felt close to back at home passed away. Keep in mind I am 700 miles away from home at school. I decided two days before her funeral I had to be home. I bought train tickets and told my roommate. Apparently that wasn't enough time for her so she started not liking me. I found out the last day I was at school she told our mutual friend she had felt that she was the 'last to know.' By the way that mutual friend was her ONLY friend (she is transferring to the school where her boyfriend goes which people should NEVER do, unless there are more reasons). After that I don't know what happened. She skyped her boyfriend all the time in the room so I had no time in the room and then she and her boyfriend would talk about me when I was in the room. Finally I wrote her a note about how we needed to talk. She became worse. I had a sort of emergency surgery in March and she was no help. I texted her and told her I was getting surgery and she didn't send anything back. She could have cared less if I died. At the end of the year I wanted closure so I left her a note saying it was if I didn't get the chance to say goodbye.... blah blah blah. I told her I was there if she ever needed anything. I got back to the room hoping to say goodbye in person but she left without any note, nothing. Absolutely nothing. And honestly, now that I am out of that situation I feel sorry for her. I feel sorry she has no friends but her boyfriend and that she didn't get closure from our horrible roommate situation. There were plenty of times I would call my mother and cry on the phone over what that girl did.
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9. PACKING
Packing is hard, tiring work. If you are anything like me you will procrastinate until all your exams are over and done. Then at that point you will need to bring in your three most trustworthy friends to pack and move things into the storage unit you rented (if you did). I personally hate when people touch my stuff, move it or do anything. However this is the point in life where you need to give up and allow others to help you. I didn't know what was going home or going into storage because I didn't do most of the final taping of boxes and zippering of bags. It wasn't until I got home that I found out what actually made it home. And despite my negative outlook my friends did an A+ job on getting everything done. I know for a fact I could not have done it or gotten to the airport without them.
My closet before with everything...... My closet emptied of everything......
My bed before.......... My bed after.....
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10. SAYING GOODBYE FOR FOUR MONTHS
This involves tears, smiles and lots of hugs. But thats when you know that you have good friends if you are crying when you say goodbye. Some of my friends I know I will be friends with forever. And just remember after your freshman year... forever has only just begun.
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