2008 Woodie Awards
Dorm life, now that's the life for me
By: Levi Joseph Wonder
Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: Forum
Every now and then, I notice some of the more glaring faults of living in a residence hall here on campus. People puking in the hallways and all over the restroom floor, thunderous music beginning the minute quiet hours end, irritating roommate habits, an infuriating amount of room-to-room drama and the fact that all of us live in oversized sardine can-style rooms.
I can fully understand why so many college students are eager to move out of the "juvenile" residence halls and to rent out houses or apartments to live in. But at the same time, I'm supremely glad the University mandates students to stay in the dorm for their first two years of classes.
No, I'm not crazy (or maybe I am! Hmmm … ), but I believe that my fellow freshmen and I are fortunate to be required to spend our first years in the residence halls here on campus.
Living in a residence hall encourages (and requires) students to adopt new social ideas and outlooks on other people; skills which they will need to be more socially accepting and tolerant later in life. After all, there are over 300 million people in this country, all with unique (and sometimes controversial) lifestyles, hobbies, activities, addictions, cravings, careers, work ethics and styles. It's imperative to be socially accepting and tolerant in today's ever-evolving progressive society.
After all, we're not living in the idealistic 1950s anymore - which was a fundamentally flawed decade anyway.
Frankly, I'm actually quite happy to live in a room comparable in size to the backseat of a 1993 Nissan Quest minivan (my vehicle of choice). By cramming my roommate and me into such a space, we have been forced to observe and analyze each other's lifestyle and habits, all while living together in said room.
Many questions are asked, a few arguments are started and more than a handful of embarrassing/infuriating events occur (like me getting locked out of my room and ending up sleeping on the carpet in front of my door).
I can fully understand why so many college students are eager to move out of the "juvenile" residence halls and to rent out houses or apartments to live in. But at the same time, I'm supremely glad the University mandates students to stay in the dorm for their first two years of classes.
No, I'm not crazy (or maybe I am! Hmmm … ), but I believe that my fellow freshmen and I are fortunate to be required to spend our first years in the residence halls here on campus.
Living in a residence hall encourages (and requires) students to adopt new social ideas and outlooks on other people; skills which they will need to be more socially accepting and tolerant later in life. After all, there are over 300 million people in this country, all with unique (and sometimes controversial) lifestyles, hobbies, activities, addictions, cravings, careers, work ethics and styles. It's imperative to be socially accepting and tolerant in today's ever-evolving progressive society.
After all, we're not living in the idealistic 1950s anymore - which was a fundamentally flawed decade anyway.
Frankly, I'm actually quite happy to live in a room comparable in size to the backseat of a 1993 Nissan Quest minivan (my vehicle of choice). By cramming my roommate and me into such a space, we have been forced to observe and analyze each other's lifestyle and habits, all while living together in said room.
Many questions are asked, a few arguments are started and more than a handful of embarrassing/infuriating events occur (like me getting locked out of my room and ending up sleeping on the carpet in front of my door).
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