Adjusting to dorm life can be difficult. With nosy roommates, loud neighbors and clogged toilets, students living in dorms will face many challenges.

For Elizabethtown College junior Ethane Omwanza, dorm life comes with challenges and annoyances that can be unavoidable, such as communal bathrooms. Sharing a bathroom with others can be difficult, especially when someone leaves the toilets out of commission. 

“If you clog the toilet, it should be your responsibility to unclog it,” Omwanza said. 

When discussing other pet peeves, Omwanza observed that a lack of privacy can dampen the dorm life experience. It can be difficult to find privacy when sharing a room with another person, notably if it’s a student’s first time sharing a room or being away from home. 

“I don’t like it when roommates don’t care about my privacy or mind their own business,” Omwanza said. 

Omwanza noted his ideal roommate as someone he can “have conversations with, be friends with and still be comfortable being roommates with them at the end of the day.” While he and his roommate are friends and get along, Omwanza would rather live alone than in a shared dorm. “I would honestly like to live by myself because I don’t want to feel like a bother to anyone or vice versa,” Omwanza said. 

Having a single dorm still comes with loud neighbors, another pet peeve that Omwanza mentioned: “I don’t like it when people are being so loud I can hear them from different floors.” It is important to respect quiet hours when living in a communal space. 

Despite its drawbacks, dorm life comes with its advantages as well. For Omwanza, the best part of dorm life is “just being able to get up and interact with people. Having all of your friends in one place makes it easy to hang out and socialize.”