Bachelor Tuesdays… and Other Reasons to Live in Residence

Author: Alix Corwin
Posted on January 19, 2021

I was NOT an extrovert my first semester of first year. I was terrified to leave my room, I’d have an anxiety attack every time I had to walk to class alone, and you wouldn’t have caught me DEAD alone in Jennings. I would go to the residence events with friends, but I would honestly hate them, because I felt like I didn’t know anyone, and I felt like I didn’t belong.

After going home for Christmas, I decided I needed to change the way I viewed residence. Instead of convincing myself that people didn’t want to get to know me, I tried to tell myself that people didn’t know me because I wasn’t putting myself out there. And as soon as I had that mind shift… everything changed. The house events started being insanely fun and my favourite parts of the semester, and I would get so excited when I was walking across campus alone and I’d see someone I knew. Eating in Jennings alone still terrified me, but at least I was making small steps!

So! I’ve decided to put together a list of reasons why you DO belong in residence, and why it will be one of the best parts of your university experience.

1. You will meet your absolute best friends. Whether it be your suitemate, the person across the hall from you, the person you meet at the first-year banquet or (this year) the person you met in quarantine, the bonds you’ll make in residence will truly last a lifetime. You will develop such incredible house spirit. I feel so much pride to be a part of the residence that I am in and will fight anyone who tells me that their residence is better… CAMPBELL CAMPBELL HALL Y’ALL!!

2. We have such fun residence events! This year on Tuesdays we all gather (socially distanced of course) in the lounge and watch Clare make a fool of herself (oh sorry I meant the bachelorette… no hate to the Clare fans), and sometimes we even get pizza or garlic fingers! Other residence events have included a pong tournament, house wide scavenger hunts, trick or treating, floor decorating, floor competitions, and so much more. Seriously, there’s never a dull day in residence.

Studying in the lounges with friends is so so so so so so much fun. Whether or not you actually get as much work done as you want is another story, but there’s something about all working together and just being in the presence of your closest friends that is so much fun. Plus, all the funniest and most candid moments of my life have happened in the second and third floor lounges of Campbell Hall.

Essentially, residence is your home away from home, and I don’t just mean that because you sleep there. It is such an incredible experience, and if anyone is ever on the fence about living in residence… DO IT!! You won’t regret it, I promise.

Photo: Some friends and I posing by the Campbell Hall sign (the res we all lived in last year)