Northeastern State University - Tsa La Gi Yearbook (Tahlequah, OK)

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Dorm Students: | Stayin’ Alive 24 Dorm Life For the almost 700 students who live too far away to commute, or who would rather walk to class than drive, living in a dormitory becomes a new part of life. Moving away from home and breaking ties from Mom and Dad for the first time is an eerie feeling for anyone, but having to move into a stark, bare-walled, empty room and sharing it with a total stranger is more than a new life: it's a scary new part of life. But at last, you finally have your own space, limited as it may be, and finally you're ‘“‘living on your own’’, encoun- tering all kinds of new experiences. Suddenly, nobody is around to tell you to clean up your room, go to class, study, do laundry, come home by 12, to make your deci- sions for you. You shock yourself by keeping your room livable, going to class (most of the time anyway), cram- ming for tests, washing clothes out of necessity, and when you Can, getting a few hours of sleep at night. Privacy becomes a thing of the past. Your room becomes a central meeting place for all your friends who want to borrow something, or inform you of the latest tragedies. Pretty soon, you’re learning the ropes. You never trust elevators. You don’t undress with the shades open. You memorize the campus security number so you can call them instead of a sleeping friend to let you back in the

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dorm after 2 a.m. You hold on to your key constantly to avoid locking yourself out in a towel and having to search for a junior counselor to let you in. You learn how to store enough clothes for nine months in a tiny closet and five drawers the size of shoe boxes. You train your mind to sleep through blasting stereos, but to wake up at the sound of the alarm. You carry an umbrella even when the weatherman says ‘‘Only a slight chance of rain today.” But there’s always a friend down the hall who’s ready to listen and t o share. You grow up a lot, realizing that missing your parents isn’t immature, it’s only natural. Although you found out the difficult way, it doesn’t always pay off to read ten chapters of biology the night before the final. You learn self-discipline after having been engulfed in the sweet euphoria of ‘freedom.’ You screamed freedom at last, and suddenly you find yourself sighing, “| want to go home’”’. On the economic and convenient side, dorm living saves on gas and physical energy. Instead of driving 50 miles, you walk to class. Healthy habit, they say. People. You meet lots of them, some become your friends and some of them don’t. From these encounters you become adept at dealing with enemies and keeping good friends. And most of all, you mature. You learn to accept the consequences for your decisions, and to take responsi- bility for them. 1. When the lights went out in the dormitories on one stormy night, some students found that studying under the emergency lights suited their purpose. 2. Sometimes a little television and snacks go along with studying. 3. The college diet, junk food, is always found, along with endless pages of notes to review and mountains of equations to solve. Dorm Life 25 er