American University - Talon / Aucola Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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Crackerbox Palace: or. You Can Live in a Dorm and Survive to Enjoy It Sitting in the lounge late one night, you begin to look around you and ask yourself why the hell you are in this place and not off campus in a house with a private room. You think about that blaring stereo in the room next to yours, and you wonder if that madman next door ever goes to sleep be- fore two in the morning. And you think about the yelling and the strange noises emitting from the room down the hall. Then you think about how you waited last Thursday night until 1:00 a.m. for the drier to release your clothes. And even after all that time they still weren ' t dry. You re- member how you never did appreciate those 3:00 a.m. fire drills during exam week or the nightly bomb threats. Then you look at your own room, which reminds you of a cell block in a jail, and you won- der. What am I doing here? But. then the belief that there must be some good aspects of dorm life begins to emerge. You think about how — even though your roommate last year was an es- capee from the Bronx Zoo — this year ' s roommate is really all right. You talked late into the night last week about girlfriend boyfriend problems and how you have this