Fifth-year senior anticipates moving back into dorms
I will be a fifth-year senior this year, and I’m preparing to move into Carey Hall this month, a residence hall primarily filled with freshman.
When I’ve told people this, I’ve had people half-heartedly smile and say, “Cool.” Or people just respond, “Dude, that sucks!”
The collective response has overwhelmingly favored the latter.
With seven credits and one final semester holding me back from graduation, I was trying to find a four-month lease for the fall. I’d seen the trouble my girlfriend had to deal with subleasing and was trying to avoid that at all costs.
My friend, a resident assistant in Carey, approached me when he was informed he would be required to have a roommate this fall. We both had four months left, and he said he’d rather live with someone he knew than a random freshman.
How bad could it be? I’d lived with him before, we get along well and it was just us two in a room that generally houses four people. So, I did him a favor and ended my housing search in one fell swoop.
Thanks to the overcrowding of the residence halls, we’ll be living with a random freshman anyway. Such is life.
I’m actually looking forward to it, however. I lived in a house on Main Street with six people last year, with a bedroom smaller than the one I’ll be living in this year. I’m almost certain that living with an RA, I won’t come home to a raucous party when I need to sleep.
The cost of living on-campus will hurt, but I won’t need to drive to class or to random computer labs for homework, which helps ease the pain.
But I’m also looking forward to it on a purely reflective standpoint. I lived in Cobb Hall when I was a freshman, so the room will be very familiar. Going back to the residence halls will remind me of how much life has changed and how much I’ve changed since my freshman year.
Sure, living with a group of people who weren’t even in high school when I was a freshman, but it should provide a laugh or two.
Plus, since I’m 22, I think I could really freak out a lot of parents by drinking in my room on move-in day.
It’s not the ideal situation for most people my age. It’s just for four months. I’ll be on campus working at the paper a lot of the time, so it’s basically a wash. But good or bad, it will definitely be different and fun.
So for Carey Hall’s freshmen, look for me. I’m the guy who looks too old to be there and doesn’t have any authority.
