As I near the end of my freshman year of college, I reflect upon the things that I've heard and seen over the past eight months I've been living in a dorm building. Needless to say, one would assume that college-aged individuals would have some manners and know some courtesies, but this is in fact not the case. I never imagined the level of disgust that would be reached upon living in a dorm building. I don't think I've ever encountered people who act in such an uncivilized way. Hopefully your experience is better than mine, but if not, here are some of the situations I encountered and how I managed to deal with them!

1. The microwaves will look like a bomb just went off in them.

If you go to a school as classy as mine, you will understand that microwaves are your only means of cooking. Yes, I did say that correctly. 50 G's and you're expected to eat Cup of Noodles and Easy Mac every day that you don't go to the cafeteria. This would be all fine and good, except for the fact that not a single person can maintain the cleanliness of the two microwaves that your entire dorm building has to share. Yes, entire dorm building. About a hundred hungry, sleep deprived students sharing two microwaves. You do the math and let me know. I understand that full kitchens are a "fire hazard," but the only person in the entire building with access to a kitchen is the Campus Life staff member who has set off the fire alarm numerous times at all times of the day due to lack of cooking skills. That's another story, though. So as it is, it's awful to have a microwave as your sole method of cooking, but factor into that the filthiness of these microwaves and you've got yourself a real winner. I get that sometimes your Easy Mac boils over, or your soup splatters a little bit, but for God's sake, take a paper towel from the roll right next to the microwave and clean up your mess!

2. It always looks like Chewbacca was the last person to take a shower.

There is no winning with communal showers. After the first week of classes, hopefully you've formed some sort of showering schedule, and you know what time is the best time to shower. For me, that is usually between 8:00 and 8:30 in the morning during the week. On the weekends, it's fair game. Now, I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to wait for a shower to open up, awkwardly standing in a towel with my shower caddy. Typically, not many people are up and showering at 8:00 in the morning and I don't blame them- I wouldn't be either if I didn't wake up in the morning with my hair looking like an oil slick. By the time I get to the shower, there are either one or two people in there or the entire room is deserted. Somebody might think this is great, and it is, but it doesn't change the condition of the showers. If hair is something that grosses you out, communal showers are not for you. I cannot describe in words the size of the clumps of hair either smack dab in the middle of the shower floor, or sitting nicely on the drain. It is utterly disgusting and to this day makes me gag. It literally looks like somebody shaved their entire head, every day. Now, I don't know what type of hair this is and frankly I don't want to know. I have managed to hack the system and only use the shower that provides water that is colder than most people like. Because it's so cold, little to no other people use it, and voila- no hair! Now, I know we all have hair, and unless you have some magical gift from God, we all shed. But geez, all you need to do is grab some toilet paper and throw out your clump of Chewbacca hair, please!

3. The bathrooms smell like a "sh*t fest," and usually look like it too.

I was in a bathroom stall one day scrolling through Facebook as I did my business when a group of girls came in and began with "Damn, it smells like a sh*t fest in here!" Ever since this statement was made, there is no other way to describe the communal bathrooms on my floor of the dorm building. A bathroom is a bathroom; it's never a pleasant place and it never comes with pleasant smells. That being said when the girl's communal bathroom is in a worse condition than the boy's communal bathroom, Houston we have a problem. I've never had my own bathroom. At my house, we have a full bathroom and a half bathroom, so I am very fluent in the lingo of sharing a bathroom. I guess I must be spoiled with the condition of our shared bathroom at home because lord was I not prepared for this. Anybody who knows me personally is well aware that I use the bathroom more than the average person. With that in mind, it would be correct to infer that I've had a lot of unique experiences in the communal bathrooms. It all goes back to courtesy. As a college-aged individual, you should know how to flush a toilet. You should know how to wipe down a toilet seat if a little bit of pee gets on it, or if the water splashes up when you flush. You should know how to wash your hands. You should know how not to clog a toilet. These are all things you should know, but yet, you somehow manage not to know. How you've made it this far in life without knowing these simple mechanisms of cleanliness is astonishing. I could go on about this topic for hours, but nobody has time for that. At the end of the day, it comes down to having some manners in the bathroom. Warning, graphic content coming next. I have to be completely honest and tell you that college bathrooms are a disgusting place to be. Some of your floor mates must have literally been raised in the wild because that is the only excuse for the way they behave in the bathroom. The worst experience I've had this year all comes down to a clogged toilet. Somebody must have dropped a massive load in the toilet and proceeded to try to flush it when it just wouldn't flush. They saw the scene they'd made and bailed without telling a soul. I entered the bathroom at about 2:00 in the morning to find poop everywhere on the floor. The floors of all four bathroom stalls (and the surrounding floor) was inhabited by brown little clumps of poop. Awestruck at this sight, I had to wake up my RA to inform her and then walk down a flight of stairs to use the bathroom on the floor below me. I don't think I need to say any more regarding the state of our communal bathroom- just beware and have courtesy for others!

4. Didn't you know? 4:00 in the morning is the perfect time to have a rave.

Almost all (if not all) colleges have noise restrictions. There are certain times during the week and other times during the weekend that are considered "quiet hours." Now, this doesn't mean you're not allowed to breathe. You do not have to resort to whispers. This simply means that you are being asked to be courteous of your neighbors. You shouldn't be screaming and your music shouldn't be too loud. It's a simple thing to ask of people, right? Wrong. If your college is anything like mine, you'll find that certain people like to have raves at 4:00 in the morning even if it's literally a Wednesday. I don't know how people manage to do this and function at all the next day in class. I also don't know who has the time to be doing this at this time of the morning. And really, who thought this was a good idea? Unfortunately, a lot of the time your only option is to wake up an RA and make a noise complaint. You feel awful about it, but when you have a test at 9:30 and the girls down the hallway are playing the music so loud that you feel like you're in their room, it is something that needs to be addressed. It's okay to have fun in college, and everybody gets a little loud at some point, but just be aware of the quiet hours and the people around you. There is absolutely no need to throw a loud dance party after midnight on a Wednesday.

5. Get used to doing laundry after midnight.

Finding time to do your laundry might be one of the hardest tasks of college. Usually, I'm able to go a week before I need to do my laundry, but then it becomes a struggle to find an open washing machine on the weekend. There have been many times where I have sat for 20+ minutes in the laundry room waiting for a washer to open up. I have also spent numerous hours hand-wringing out my soaking wet clothing because I overfilled the washer. This is another thing in which one can simply never win. Washing machines are very sensitive things. One shirt too many and you're running your wash through again or wringing the gallons of water out of your clothing by hand. This is if you can even find an open washer. Don't be surprised if you have to start doing your laundry after midnight. After 34 minutes in the washing machine, you're expected to run down three flights of stairs and switch it to the dryer for another 45 minutes. That is if a dryer is even open. The time difference between washers and dryers is killer. If you're tackling a mad laundry rush, the person before you typically puts their laundry in the dryer at the same time you load your laundry into the washer. So your laundry finishes in the washer after 34 minutes, and you find yourself immediately pulling out your wet clothes so the next person can begin their load. You literally have to sit with your wet clothes for 11 minutes until the dryer opens up. There is no winning when doing laundry. Most of the time you should just set aside two hours for your whole laundry process and make sure your phone is fully charged.

I don't intend to scare anybody away from dorm life with my dorm stories. College is such a fun experience, and honestly I am so much happier dorming than I thought I would be. There is just something about living on campus that is very special. You have some amazing experiences despite a few horrific encounters. It's all part of life and being in college. Depending on your school and the individuals who live on your floor, you might not run into any of these issues. Others may run into them on the daily, like myself. While I shared my personal experiences in a humorous way, I really just want people to understand the importance of college courtesies. You are now living with people other than yourself and you need to remember to be considerate of these other people. We are all attending college to get an education and prepare us for the future while having fun along the way, but the only way we can get the most out of this experience is by being courteous of one another.