Here is a BRAND NEW blog entry from Caitlin Dong, ForCarol.com’s 2011 College Scholarship winner.
Caitlin is now attending U.C. Berkeley (….Berzerkeley….I just had to do it!). 🙂
Enjoy!
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College life is undoubtedly different from high school/home life in many ways. While college life and living on your own is exciting and fun, nothing really beats going home for a few days. Here is a list of various areas in which living at home and living in the dorms differ – they are randomly listed, depending on when I randomly thought of each one
|
Category |
Life at Home/In High School |
Dorm/College Life |
| Bathroom Issues | You sit directly on a toilet seat & go about your business with complete privacy. | You scout out who’s in the bathroom, set up three layers of toilet seat covers, and the silence is continually interrupted by people coming into and out of the bathroom. |
| Shower Time | You take a shower barefoot. | You shower wearing shower shoes. |
| FOOD | You can ravage the refrigerator at any hour of the day/night. | You can’t fit more than a miniature ice cream carton in your freezer. |
| FOOD | You eat real food. | You eat food that looks real. |
| Transportation | You drive everywhere. | You walk or take the bus…if you’re lucky, the bus driver won’t leave you behind. |
| Bathroom Issues | You can wake up and pee at 2 in the morning. | You can’t force yourself to get out of bed, grab your key, be blinded by the hallway lights, be blinded again by the bathroom lights, line the toilet seat, do your business, wash your hands, and successfully make it back to your bed without tripping over something on your way back into your room. |
| Personal Hygiene | You can walk barefoot around the house. | You don’t know what the carpet in your dorm room as been through, so you always wear socks or slippers. |
| Automatic Lock | You can’t get locked out of your room. | You have to sit in the hallway, waiting for your roommate come back and let you in. |
| Winter = Cold | The heater in your house comes on when the air temperature drops below a certain point. | You don’t even realize you have control of the heat in your room until two weeks before the end of the semester. |
| Shower Time | You can leave your clothes in your room or put them somewhere where they will stay dry in the bathroom when you decide to take a shower. | You go into the shower clothed, shower, and then put your clothes on before you come out of the shower. |
| Bathroom Issues | You have control of the light in the bathroom. | You have the light turned off on you while you’re in the bathroom. |
| Laundry | You sort your laundry and then wash. | You throw everything you can possibly fit into the washer/dryer because you don’t want to pay more than you have to. |
| People | You know who you live with. | At the end of the semester, you’re still trying to figure out who lives on your floor. |
| Shower Time | You can adjust the water temperature of the shower. | The water temperature does whatever the heck it wants. |
| Grubbin’ | You wash your dishes after eating. | You don’t have to wash dishes! The moving dish rack takes them away. |
| Room Accommodations | You can open your window without fear of falling out. | When you open the window for some fresh air, be careful. There are no window screens. |
| Parentals | You know that, if you oversleep, your parents are bound to wake you up or check on you. | You’re on your own. Hopefully, you’re responsive to your alarm and don’t become a professional in turning off your alarm while sleeping. |
| Animal Kingdom | There are scrawny squirrels that run away when you approach. | Squirrels will literally walk up to you & steal your food. They are scary. |
I’m sure there are many more I’m forgetting, but hopefully you got a few smiles out of these ones. Everyone is bound to have different experiences, but I would suppose that some of these college adventures are or will turn out to be somewhat similar
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