We have officially survived our first week back to campus (can I get an Amen!). Let’s thank God, Buddha and Allah for helping us through this first week. The first week is the hardest because we have to re-learn everything. We have to re-learn how to write, how to pay attention in class, how to pretend to care about our professors’ life stories, how to talk, how to pretend to listen to our friends’ struggles and so on. Going to class and accomplishing big things every day is hard therefore we need a cozy place to come back to after class; we need a decent home away from home. If you are a freshman (or even a sophomore) you are probably living on campus and if you are an upper classmen you decided to exile yourself off campus. Let’s have fun and compare living on campus vs. living off campus. You are all probably thinking that off campus is better but like everything in life it has its ups and downs. Now sit, relax and let me take you through my struggle of living off campus for the first time.

1. Walking To Class

When I lived on campus walking to class was not that big of a deal (except for the gigantic hill). I woke up at 8am (yes for my 8:30 classes), got ready in 20 min and I was out at around 8:20am. Climbing the hill was a 5 min leg exercise and I was getting to class by 8:25 am. But now that I live off campus I need a plan to make it to class on time. My plan is to wake up an hour before I have to leave the house and to leave 30 min before my class so I have the time to get ready, do my hair, maybe put on some makeup and have a lazy walk to class. But you probably already know that I started struggling to make it to class on time since day one. Monday the problem was my hair, Tuesday it was my outfit, Wednesday it was my makeup and Thursday I couldn’t find the top I wanted to wear. Fun fact: I already missed a class because I overslept and I was late to my last class the day right after #strugglebacktoback.

2. Food Food Food

I think I took Letch for granted. I used to complain about campus food all the time. I was eating it but I just had to complain, it was an obligation you know. But I have to say I actually miss my meal plan. Now I struggle every day to find something to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If it was up to me I would eat Cheerios and pasta every day. Last week I spent a fortune on groceries and I don’t even know what I bought because I don’t have anything to eat. Every morning I wake up and start thinking about what I am going to eat, I usually get bored after 5 seconds and I make up my mind as the day goes on. But this weekend I decided to step up my game and make a real dinner. I have my chicken marinating in the fridge and I am going to make bean stew with rice. Doesn’t that sound just amazing? Rice and beans with chicken... yes please!

3. My Room My Rules

Alright living off campus is not all that bad because you get to have your own room. No more hiding your boyfriend under your cover when you roommate unexpectedly walks in, no more holding a fart because you don’t want to kill your roommate, you can finally live your life and make up your own rules. You can do whatever you want. If I want to sleep with the lights on I am going to do it because I am by myself (and also because we all saw the trailer for Lights Out and we know what happen in the dark). When I want to wake up at 6am to contemplate my workout clothes without putting them on I am not bothering anybody. If I want to have a full on conversation with someone well I talk to myself and we always agree with each other so it’s pretty nice. If I don’t want to clean and want my room to be a mess well it is going to be a mess and nobody’s going to tell me to pick up my dirty underwear. If I don’t want to shower for an entire week to save some water, I have the power to do and make mother earth proud.

Story time: So remember Monday? With my hair problem? Well I made it in time and left the house with my roommate, Jess, around 8am. While walking we saw two guys waiting at the bus stop and started running because we wanted to take the bus too. We ran for our lives! Usain Bolt cannot even compared, we probably broke some records along the way. In a moment of panic Jess let her phone fall and had to go back to pick it up by the time we started running again the bus was gone. We knew we were not going to make it but we decide to run anyway (getting our workout of the day). Well we missed the buss so we stopped running. Some dude was driving behind us at that exact moment and he saw the all thing and chances are he was probably making fun of us. That’s another thing right there, walking vs. driving to class. When you live on campus you can see everybody struggling and walking to class and you feel included. But off campus is another story. Every time I walk I feel like the people driving are judging me and making fun of me, they look at me like I am crazy. I am sorry guys, the only car I will have for a while is my two legs but please don’t run over me (or actually please do and pay for my tuition).