College 101: Lesson 2

So last time I covered the basics of starting off in college, how to make some friends and warning you about homesickness. Today I'll prepare you for dorm life. Retched dorm life.
No one wants to live in the dorms if we're being totally honest. Who wants to live in a tiny room, smaller than the one you have at home, with a stranger/friend in a tight enclosed space, surrounded by other 17-30 (yes I have a 30 year-old that lives on my floor) year olds that act like dogs that just got let out of their cage? If you answered yes..... well let me convince you to say no because dorm life is fun don't get me wrong, but by Christmas Break you'll want to take a match and burn the place down.
The fundamentals of it all is quite easy at first glance before you come. I imagined a nice little dorm, tidy and cozy, everything having it's place and just clean because I am a clean person. If you're lucky, you can go online and look up the dorm room you'll be staying in. Go ahead. Go look up Oliver Hall at KU. There are scarce pictures. It didn't raise any red flags to me, but it should have. I'm sure my former classmates will agree with me that adjusting to this new arrangement was harder than we expected.
What I expected my dorm room to look like:

Nice am I right? It makes you WANT to live in a dorm room. It's clean and there is a laughing boy and everything looks just cozy. THIS PICTURE IS MISLEADING. They cleverly did not include in the picture what is behind the picture taker. The smallest closets you will ever have with a vanity that looks older than you are and very nasty drawers and just ALOT more. You can't tell in the picture also that the air unit is completely disgusting. I need to find the room they took this in and move in there.
What my dorm room actually looks like:

We've rearranged so many times and this is the one we're stuck on right now. You'll see my lovely bed right there and to your left you will see the joke of a closet we are allowed and I kindly did not show the ungodly mess my roommate and I call our floor. We're terrible with cleaning. It's horrendous but we just refuse to clean. As you can see. Nothing like that lovely first picture.

So I did some research for my high schoolers out there getting ready for this wonderful time. Let me show you what they want you to think it looks like.
I know from asking around that the majority of the seniors this year are going to Fort Hays:
Most of you will hopefully live in McMindes which seems to be a good place from actually visiting Isaac and Bethany and all my other lovely classmates:

Look at how quaint that looks am I right? A little plant to show some life. But let's analyze. They don't show the actual dimensions of the room or what's behind them. Two twin size beds you can either bunk or have so high off the ground you have to have a step stool to even get on them. Seems to be the trend there. Also can I point out that laptop. MY BROTHER HAD THAT LAPTOP. My brother now around 26-27 had that laptop when he went to college. Almost 4 years ago. Obviously this picture is a little older.
Next for Hays is Tiger Place or Agnew Hall. LIVE HERE OMG. Bethany lived there her first semester and guys, it's like an apartment. LIVE HERE:

It may seem a little off setting but you get your own room. OWN I REPEAT OWN ROOM. You have two other roommates and when I visited I was really close to just staying there and just living on their couch. Compared to my dorm room this is luxury. YOU HAVE YOUR OWN MINI KITCHEN!
Next is Wiest. I only know of one person that lives there and it's Emily Brandt. (HELLO FRIEND!) From others I've heard it's the worst but from Emily's experience, it's not terrible. Other than her bad share of roommates. (Which can happen.)

This just look like an older version of McMindes. I believe this is the oldest building of course you'll have to expect oldness.

I'm not about to do K-States because they have too many dorms and that would just take FOREVER but from looking it over. Some are terrible, some are like AGNEW. So choose wisely people.

Next is roommates. Some people have good experiences and some people have horrendous experiences. I was one of the lucky few that had potluck and actually liked her roommate. Most of you probably know about Marilyn. My little Thai Asian roommate. She is a fireball that loves her Asian ramen and anime. I'm not joking, she has drawings of anime on her wall. She is one of the most talkative and nice people I have ever met. We have gotten along so well that it's been a breeze. Some people may not get that lucky. My story is a fairytale. Some have horror movies. I've heard of roommates that don't shower for days, that don't clean their dishes and you find it a few months later with it's own ecosystem. It's the luck of the draw when you go potluck. If you decide to live with a friend from high school, it could go well or horribly wrong. You could grow to hate this person you used to love so dearly because of the enclosed quarters you now live in. That adorable laugh they have turns into a cackle you hate in a matter of months. It's tricky picking who to live with. I would advise against living with your best friend from high school. You really don't want the risk of losing that friendship.

That was just a glaze over of dorm life. I forgot a lot but I don't want to make this post as long as a Harry Potter book. Just take this all with a grain of sand. Don't start to stress that maybe you chose the wrong place to live or start to worry that you'll get a terrible roommate. It's not the end of the world if you live in the grossest dorm the university offers, you will find your people that will make it all better in the end. And trust me, living in Oliver compared to living in Ellsworth is completely polar opposites. Because Oliver isn't very nice, you bond with other residents about how gross it really is. I got this amazing advice from none other than another KU alum and Oliver alum, Matt Thierolf. When you live in Ellsworth, you tend to stay in your own room because it's literally like a hotel. It all depends on the experience you want to have.

So my little advice for all you incoming freshman. Worry about your dorm room and your roommate, but don't worry TOO much. Choose wisely on both sides. And make your dorm room as cozy as possible. You'll be in there a full year. Make it home. Because it is.