Dorms and Heating Repair Do Not Go Hand in Hand

Living in a dorm freshman year of college is pretty much a tradition. It can definitely be a fun tradition; you meet new people easily and the dorms are usually right on campus. Being right on campus makes it much easier to get to classes, especially the early ones. That way you can wake up fifteen minutes before you need to get to class, and still get there on time. With the dorms that close on campus, it can also make it a bit safer getting back home after dark. It's not that far to walk, and hopefully you'll be with friends that you have made at the dorms. Travelling in groups also makes it much safer to walk around at night, so that's another good thing about the dorms.

But one thing about the dorms is that you can't always control your temperature. Usually it's okay to not be able to be in control of your own temperature, unless you are in an older dorm. If it's an older dorm, it can be a bit drafty, both for heat and for cold. Windows let in drafts, and so do the buildings themselves. So when it gets hot, it gets really hot. But the worst is when it gets cold. I hate waking up cold. During the winter, there were so many mornings that the moment I woke up, I could feel how cold it was. It definitely didn't make me want to get up in the morning. The floor was cold, the bathroom was cold, and I shivered just walking around the room. And the worst part about it was that I couldn't even call a heating repair guy. Even if I had called a heating repair specialist, it's not like they could do anything. The school controlled the whole building, so a heating repair guy would just come and see that everything was working properly, even though my room was definitely not being heated properly. So that was definitely not a plus of living in the dorms.

Besides the cold and the hot, the dorms could be incredibly depressing too. The walls were an awful shade of dirty looking beige, even though the school claimed that they painted yearly. If they do paint, it must be the same awful color. It doesn't help the feeling that you are very confined. The dorms have very strict rules, though depending on who the RA is; the rules might not be enforced so well. But if you do have a strict RA, then they might come down hard on you if you are making too much noise after a certain time, which on weekends can be very annoying. Though RA's are a great resource if you are having troubles with your roommates, which happen often. They can help troubleshoot or mediate a bad relationship.

So living in a dorm is a mix of awesome, awful, and mediocre. It is definitely not for everyone, but it is an experience that most usually goes through.