You're either a freshman and you're forced to be here, or you're an upperclassman who was lucky (maybe?) enough to win the housing lottery. Yay. You're an inhabitant of either the Suites, Lewis, Donny, Owen or you're a cadet in Liberty, Patriot or Gaillard. You're living that strict rules life. No candles. No alcohol. No members of the opposite sex after certain hours. This is the world of RA meetings, room checks and plastic key-card swiping (fun fact: if you break your card reader, it's like $1,000 to replace). You pay way more money for housing than your off-campus friends and your roommates are probably strangers. It's a rough life because of...
Your hall's GroupMe.
121 unread messages from a bunch of random people you wouldn't even recognize if you saw them in public. Your RA is posting about programs you'll never go to because you're too busy studying or avoiding studying by watching Netflix (during the precious moments when the wifi is working), and there are a million random people sending random things. It's been on mute since day one.
Campus wifi.
In the five semesters I've been at UNG, I have installed SafeConnect a grand total of (drum roll please) TWENTY-SIX times. I don't even know what it is, but it makes me mad. And if that isn't enough of an irritant, the wifi is so spotty you have to remain absolutely still to get a solid signal and you probably owe your cell phone company an exorbitant fee for exceeding your monthly data limit. Dang you, ResNet.
The people above you being the loudest humans on the planet, and you're about ready to beat on their door.
You're pretty sure you live below the basketball team, AND they play basketball in the room. Or you live below some really obnoxious video gamers who scream and insult each other's mothers. And there's always that person whose phone vibrates or who plays the ukelele or some crap. Or a couple doing couple things (like laughing too loud and watching TV with the volume up way too loud, obviously). Don't you people realize the walls are paper-thin?
Your friends never want to hang out at your place.
Because no one wants to have to deal with checking in and out and random roommates and several years' worth of dust and stink when you can drive down the road to a nice, quiet, rule-free apartment. Your friends probably live in Sherm, UH, or the swanky new Bellamy and would much rather hang at their places (where they have awesome things like pets and candles) or they live way out in the Ben Higgins boonies and just don't feel like driving and dealing with campus parking.
CAMPUS PARKING.
Thankfully most of us don't really have to worry about driving to class, but if you roll back in from a night out and you're looking for a reasonable parking spot, you're screwed. And with your luck, you probably live in Owen and have to park in the Walker Drive deck and have to carry ten bags of groceries back to your apartment. In the rain, uphill both ways.
The Freshman 15 not being a thing.
Because it's uphill both ways getting to and from your dorm and you're not about to try to park anywhere on campus to go to class. The HNS booty is, however, very real.
Car alarms.
It's two in the morning. You're either dead asleep, studying for a test, or deep in a Netflix (and chill? maybe?) sesh. And it happens...A CAR ALARM GOES OFF. And keeps going. And going. It's like the Energizer Bunny got inside some kid's Acura and refuses to sleep. But shoutout to campus police for finding a way to silence those things. Not sure how they do it, but the boys in blue come in clutch when it comes to car alarms. After one car alarm goes off, it's probably triggered the alarm of some other kid's car nearby. It's like the domino effect, but loud, and it makes you want to smash a windshield.
Fire drills.
Obviously, they're necessary every now and then, but if they could happen when you weren't naked in the shower, that would be cool.
Overall, there are a lot of struggles you have to deal with living on campus, but it could be a whole lot worse. You could be homeless, right? For the most part, your hallmates and RAs are cool, the view from your room is beautiful, and you wouldn't trade the experience for anything.
