Life Outside of the Fraternity House

After spending two years living in one of the wonderful on-campus fraternity housing units, I can say with a sense of relief that I FINALLY have my own room, my own space, and no one comes in it!

So why do I find myself asking, “Where is everybody??”

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things about the units I don’t miss. Waking up on a Saturday to find my room looking like it was hit by a hurricane (or maybe it was just some riled up Miley Cyrus fans) was never fun. Starting to clean up my room and finding that all the cups are actually stuck to my desk does not make for the best academic environment. And then finally getting to the bathroom, well…it makes you wonder how a bathroom can really get that dirty after one night. And the worst part of all is realizing that once it’s all cleaned up, the whole thing will start again in about 10 hours.

So moving off-campus, it’s nice knowing that I won’t wake up with somebody random sleeping on my futon who stumbled in there the night before. Even better is walking across my floor to the closet (barefoot!) without having my foot get stuck on whatever sugary drink was spilled.  (Just out of habit, I still have my shower shoes sitting next to my bed just in case.) When I get to the kitchen in my house, all of my dishes are still there (no one tried making ramen noodles at 4am) and all my food is still in the fridge, not scattered across the shelf. It’s nice having a little bit of privacy for once.

Or is it?

Cleaning up after clumsy people from a Friday or Saturday night is not a fun way to spend the weekend, but I do miss having people in my room on a lazy Sunday. Laying around and watching whatever sports are on, eating Tops China ($4.50 lunch special, ain’t nothing better) with all my fraternity brothers is just a great feeling that I really miss. I never thought I would admit to missing the fraternity life, but here I am with my own room and I actually wish there were a bunch of loud guys laying all over my futon, leaving their Wawa trash on my coffee table, debating about which sorority girls are the hott–I mean the pros and cons of Obama’s Healthcare Bill or something like that (right?).

So there it is. I miss the unit and all the guys who I lived there with. Senior year I’ll really need to make a strong effort to stay in touch with everyone who I’m no longer living with so I don’t lose those friendships; gone are the days where I can just open my door and walk into someone else’s room to hang out. And you know, now that I’ve finally had a chance to look back on it, I really do have some incredible memories.

I love my own room, and I love my own space, but living with 35 other people who you’re close with is a life experience that I’ll never be able to duplicate (unless of course I find a really fratty retirement home – I should start looking now).