Vander Bats – College Life

Dorm life has been complicated. For the most part, it’s great. Nothing is perfect, though. Sharing a room with a stranger is not ideal. Even if there aren’t any major arguments, it can still feel uncomfortable. My situation with my roommate is very uncomfortable. He’s very anti-social, except when it comes to talking to people online with the volume all the way up when I am in the room. He’s messy and lacks a much needed hygiene routine. Because of all these things, I am mostly outside of my room. I will be in and out of my room quickly to get tools for studying, and bring it to the lounge where I can focus more on my work instead of what random grunts he’s making. In the lounge, it can also get somewhat distracting, but I much prefer the lounge to my room.

What I like about dorm life would mainly be about the lounge. I like having a common room where many people can hang out, it provides more time to get to know new people. The lounge is my go to place because there’s always someone in there to talk to. I got to know most of my friends in college. I like that we have a kitchen area to ourselves as well, in case we want to cook. We have used the kitchen to make dinners together before. We use the dining table for doing homework together as well. It helps us keep each other accountable and able to ask others for advice if we need it. My friends and I have also been able to do more things both on and off campus together. We’ve gone to haunted houses together, gone shopping together, and campus events. I think that the socializing opportunities are worth the bad roommate some might get.

In and Out of the Classroom

College has been a lot so far, both good and bad. The good has stood out more than the bad as of now. For example, I have made many friends. I made them through my dorm hall. On the second night of college, we all gathered together to take a hike in order to find the chapel in the woods. We all got to talking on the way there and back, finding things we had in common. I was able to talk about music with other people, which is the quickest way I bond with people. Another way I’ve bonded with people is by getting some of those new friends together to go to a local punk concert. We had a great time and grew closer because of that. Another time, we went out to a haunted house that was near campus. I learned about the others’ reactions, personalities, and interests in relation to the haunted house.

Another way I learned about my friends was by being in the same classes. My friend, Katelynn, has 3 out of 4 classes with me. We are able to talk about our work and help each other out. We can also talk about what we like or dislike about each class we have together. We both agree on what our favorite class is and why. That class is a sociology class we both took for our major- social work. The discussions in class can be a bit stressful, but it’s an interesting topic to learn and talk about. We do in class activities and the teacher makes lighthearted jokes to keep our attention during the lectures. She is adamant about inclusivity and it creates a comfortable environment when it wouldn’t be otherwise, with the controversial topics that we talk about in class. The first topic we learned about was what initially made me feel safe in the classroom. She had jumped headfirst into a controversial topic and made it obvious how supportive she is of every identity, and that her class should be the same.