By applying to be an art, music, dance, or theater major at Towson, you practically are signing a lease to your new home, the Center for the Arts. It's really a beautiful building, with awesome ceilings with colored windows that shine colored rays onto the floor of the Atrium and Prisms that cast rainbows on the walls, you quickly become fascinated with the CFA. Countless comfy couches are placed all throughout each walkway and no one will judge you if you take a power nap, but they might snap a picture. The Cafe has pretty exceptional food and it is a prime spot for people watching due to the entertaining personnel that inhabit this building.

1.Your hours spent in the CFA increase exponentially as the years go on

Before you know it, you will find yourself arriving at the CFA at least before 11 am and most likely leaving after 8 pm. You will have at least one 6-10 class at night every semester and sometimes three back to back four hour classes in a row. You expect to spend at least eight hours in this building per day. Not only do you spend time in the CFA to attend class, but you must spend time in the building to work on projects between classes and stalk the room schedules to make sure you don't come in the studios during a class time.

2. You have established the couch of your choosing

There has to be at least 30 couches spread throughout the building, but there's one that specifically stands out to you. Maybe there is a window nearby that gives you the sense that you have maybe walked outside of the building in the past six hours. Maybe all of your friends have designated this spot for a gathering time before you class starts. Either way, you always find a way to hang out on this particular couch.

3.You have stayed in the building after they lock the doors.

At about 9 pm, they lock the doors to get into the CFA, but for those who have gotten in before that time have the ability to leave, but you aren't subject to get out. Which means you may get away with sleeping over. And at this point, once you have chosen to make the CFA a place to sleep, you have made the CFA your home. There is no turning back at this point.

4. The workers at the cafe know your name and order

You don't even need to finish your order, they know exactly what you want. They greet you with a big smile and sometimes hook you up with free food. They like to ask about your day and sometimes will comment how this is your third time ordering from the cafe today. You don't even buy lunch or dinner foods at this point because you know you will be eating at the CFA for the rest of the semester.

5. You become friendly with your professors

You are around so much that you see your professors everywhere. Sometimes they spark up conversation and ask about how you have been doing in the class. You learn their first name, you share some laughs here and there. You hear about what professors are liked by the rest of the students and which ones suck.

6. Your back continuously hurts from the art studios backless stools and low tables

If you've been in the fourth floor studios, you know what I am talking about. There are tall ass stools with no backs that you have to crouch on and reach below your knees to be able to get to the rolling tables.

7. You sometimes rely on the Thursday night gallery openings and other events for free food

You know the CFA is practically your home when you leave your Thursday four hour night class during the break to run to the atrium to raid the glorious buffet for free food and illegally smuggle wine back to class. You pass your teacher with that wine and you watch their face of disappointment cast upon you, but you chug the plastic cup of Moscato anyway.

8. You have at least three lockers filled with all your shit

You've extended your property into the CFA at this point. You claimed these spaces early and made your own real estate inside the building. You know that you will need these to keep certain materials in the building so you don't need to lug it around to secure that you won't forget anything at home. One locker is simply not enough due to the fact that you wouldn't want to have to leave your class on the second floor to sprint up the stairs to the fourth floor to get your ceramic tools.

9. You have roamed the galleries more than what would be acceptable

You often find yourself in the 3rd Floor Gallery several times a week looking at other's work. You know that the Downstairs Galleries only change twice a year at most, yet you always walk around when you need a break from work. You don't walk outside for a break, you've already fully inhabited the CFA.

10. You are afraid to walk around any other Towson building

You've become accustomed to all the people who roam the CFA. You know your way around front and back. You have comfort in here. When you are forced into an other building you get clammy and nervous, due to the fact that this is a new environment. Every other building (except the liberal arts building) is ugly and old looking in your eyes. It doesn't have cool colored windows that shine pretty colors on the floor, no prism rainbows, no music majors singing in the atrium, no one playing the guitar on a couch. You need to escape to the Center for the Arts ASAP.

If you are a major in which your department resides in the CFA, you have accepted the fact that you live in the CFA during the semesters. You have established your own space in the building and have multiple places for storage scattered around. You have spent at least one night alone in the CFA for an all nighter and you have comfort in this building. If you just started your program here as a freshman, be aware that this is your house for the next four years. Or five.. because Towson likes to keep us here as long as possibe