Attending college is one of the best experiences of your life. You get to party, meet new people, try new things, learn and party some more. However, college can’t always be fun. There aren’t too many things that suck about it, but I can think of one. For all of you students who have ever lived on campus and experienced this terror, I am glad you made it through. This is one of the most annoying, scariest, and lousiest parts of living in a dorm. That’s right, I’m talking about the horror of community bathrooms. For many college students, there’s no escaping this nightmare. Here are six things that everyone hates about community bathrooms.
1. Shower Shoes.
Of course this is for the sake of our personal health and hygiene, but there is no need to explain this one. We all know the annoying ritual of having to put on our beloved Walmart or Old Navy flip-flops each and every time we take a shower. Then, having to find a place to leave them to dry without getting water everywhere. What a pain!
2. Shower Caddy
Now this one just might top the utter annoyance of shower shoes. From dripping water everywhere to having to clean whatever bacteria may be growing inside that thing, shower caddies are the bane of some community bathroom goer’s existence. It’s actually pretty gross when you think about it. You keep your soap here, your loofah or wash cloth, toothbrush and toothpaste, and just about everything in between in this bacteria absorbing, germ collecting, and dirty water holding piece of plastic. I mean, what else can we say about it? It’s gross!
3. Forgetting something
We’ve all done it. A towel, soap, toothpaste--every one has forgotten something in their room and realized it once they’ve gotten to the bathroom. Now the worst of these is forgetting your soap or towel and realizing it after you’ve gotten into the shower. Then you have to decide: am I going to take one for the team and do a really good job washing my body with water, or am I going to go back to my room, semi-naked and wet, and get my soap? Most of the time, you take one for the team.
4. Getting locked out
Now this one really sucks! You’ve just taken your shower. You’ve gotten all squeaky clean and life is great. Once you get to your door, towel and shower caddy in hand, you realize your life is over. You’re locked yourself out of your room. Now you have to go to your RA in your robe or towel for it to be unlocked. God forbid your RA is nowhere to be found and you have to go all the way to the front desk; naked, in your towel, shower caddy in hand-only to find no one.
5. Shaving
Girls you know how hard this one is. Shaving in a regular shower is already difficult. Multiply that gruesome experience by three and divide the ordinary shower size by seven, and you’ll understand what it's like to shave in a community bathroom shower. You thought yoga taught flexibility, try this.
6. Pooping
It’s impossible to poop in peace! You never thought that doing number two in the privacy of your own bathroom at home could be taken for granted. In a community bathroom, you have to worry about stinking up the entire restroom. Some people prefer to “drop and flush” or do a “courtesy flush.” But how gross is that? Then you have to worry about somebody else handling their business right next to you! Between the sounds, smell and overall awkward experience, pooping in a community bathroom is completely uncomfortable each and every time.
The community bathroom experience is not the end of the world. It is only one aspect of your college experience. If anything, you grow as a person, learn about patience, cleanliness and sometimes uncleanliness. Most students that have lived on campus have experienced each of these situations, hopefully not too long after their freshman year. But to those of you who will experience these things for the first time in the fall, good luck! I wish you all wonderful community bathroom experiences and peaceful poops.