A Day in the Life of a Residence Student

Author: Alix Corwin
Posted on February 16, 2021

I never realized how different my days are in residence than at home, until Covid forced me to finish my second semester of first year and first semester of second year at home. Studying at home and finding a good routine is MUCH more difficult than it is in residence, and now I’m beginning to realize how lucky I am to be in residence. 

When I wake up in the morning it’s either to my alarm going off (at 7:30 a.m., UGH), or to my friends knocking on my door at around 8:30 or 9 so we can all go get breakfast at Jennings together. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, me and my friends all have Linear Algebra at 8:30 a.m. so we’ll stagger into the third-floor lounge in Campbell to watch it together, and then run and get breakfast to go from Jennings before our next classes.

Typically, I’ll spend the rest of my morning in the lounge with my friends; each of us doing our individual work and the boys driving us girls INSANE by yelling out annoying things when we’re trying to speak in breakout rooms in labs. We’ll all go get lunch at 12 or 12:30 and spend the next 15 minutes walking around Jennings trying to find four free tables because we can only have two people per table now. 

Then, the afternoon is again just homework and studying… usually I’ll go get coffee and go for a walk with some off campus friends too, just so I can get off campus and they can get out of their apartments. Aida’s is my current favourite… their chai tea lattes are the best I’ve ever tasted (and I’m a HUGE Starbucks fan so that’s really saying something coming from me!!). Plus, you can never go wrong with their macaroons, or a crispy chicken sandwich (with honey mustard of course!). 

After going back to res I’ll study a little more, and then my friends and I will all head over to dinner (at the extremely early hour of 5:30pm). Dinner usually consists of the three girls in our friend group of eight cringing and pretending we don’t know the other five guys as they embarrass themselves, us, and basically all of the people in Jennings (they’re really talented at making fools of themselves). 

Surprise surprise… there’s more studying to be done after dinner, but usually by about 9 p.m. all of our brains are fried, and we just spend the rest of the night hanging out and talking in the third-floor lounge (I swear I spend more time there than I do in my own room). Depends on the night but usually at about 11 I’ll head back down to my room to relax and watch Criminal Minds before going to bed. 

Weekends I’ll get work done during the day, but in the evenings, I’ll spend time with friends, and try and not think about schoolwork (much easier said than done!). If I’m on duty (like I am this weekend), I’ll do some schoolwork then, or just talk with the other RA on duty! I love doing rounds too because it’s such a good way to get to know all of the residents!

Living in residence was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and I’ll be so sad to leave it next year! But… (covid willing) I’ll definitely be back to visit all the new and old Campbell geckos :) 

Photo: Some friends and I enjoying a walk!