Resident Life with Summer Scholars

The past five days living at Scott Hall has been an eye opening experience for me. I have never lived with so many strangers at the same time, especially in such a long time span. But if anything, it was nothing less than an optimistic experience. It showed me everything from the importance in considering other’s opinions, mainly when working together or sharing the same living space, to the importance of balancing work with play, no matter how tempting the “fun” part is. Showing me how college life would be was intimidating, yet very enjoyable and exciting. It illustrated very different sides of it, but reassured me that by finding a median, college life would be nothing but a positive experience to be had.
The biggest adjustment in college will be living with strangers; at least it was for me. There is no longer your own bathroom or shower that you use on your own personal schedule, or a mother that will clean after you. Having a roomate means living with someone who will most likely have different opinions or views from you. But the truth is, it’s part of the package; everyone comes from different backgrounds, therefore, they are going to have different principles and attitudes regarding different subjects that may come up when living together.
It’s not always a doomed situation though. For instance, as my roomates and I did, the perfect solution is to simply sit down with one’s roomates and device a straightforward plan that can work for everyone. For example, depending on everyone’s schedules, when they like to shower and how long they like to shower for, is all the information we needed to devise “a showering schedule” that can work for everyone. Chores can also be split up and switched up every week. Coming from this experience, even on the last day at the dorms, when cleaning had to be done before moving out, my roomates and I all made sure to talk, split the work up evenly between us, and make sure everyone shared an even work load. It all comes down to simply respecting other’s opinions and needs; being fair to everyone. Hey, it worked for my roomates and I! Allowing all of us to get to know eachother better by the end of week, with absolutely no disagreements!