If you’re one of the unlucky underclassmen that have to live in a communal dorm, you’ll be faced with the adversity of having no privacy.
You’ll most likely have a roommate, sharing your personal space with a stranger, you’ll be going to parties, being one of the many people crammed into a fraternity off campus house or bar and you’ll be one of many students enrolled in some sort of introduction class in Dallas Hall.
With the few moments of alone time that are possible in college, it’s aggravating when you spend those ten golden minutes showering singing your heart out and you hear a loud door bust open as someone enters the stall next to you to urinate.
A part of me dies inside every time it happens. It’s human nature to have to do your metabolic processes in order to maintain homeostasis, but there’s only so many times I can walk into a restroom that’s occupied when I’m in dire need of a shower or stall.
Moreover, if you want to take a shower, it has to be planned in advanced. You have to figure out what times the least amount of people will also be showering, and you have to pack your shower caddy and toiletry bag accordingly. After you’ve gathered all your things, you strip down to your robe or towel to run down the hall to your destination.
But most importantly, never forget your ID card, or you’ll be that kid on your floor mostly naked and wet, shivering like a chihuahua until your residential advisor unlocks your door for you.
As much as it is a pain to live with a communal bathroom, there are a few perks. The bathrooms are always clean. The SMU cleaning staff never fails to put new shower curtains and make the stalls and sinks look new every morning.
You meet new people. Whether you want to or not, you’ll be running into people as you go in and out of the bathroom. There’s small talk while both of you wash your hands and wait for the hand dryer. There’s the silent head nod that occurs when you’re leaving and someone enters. And the most notorious encounter is when you’re fresh out of the shower looking like a newborn baby being swaddled and someone happens to observe this lovely sight.
These moments shape your underclassmen years in college. Living in a communal dorm may lack privacy, but you learn to compensate (and appreciate your room, bathroom and everything else at home). It’s one of those necessary college experiences that when you’re forty-something and reminiscing on your college days as you prepare your future children for theirs, you’ll look back on that time you were wearing your bathrobe, retainer and glasses as your cute neighbor walked by and laugh.
