After months of being on campus, our genuine shock at some very normal experiences is laughable.

Whether you live in the Barnard Quad, East Campus, or even in your own apartment near campus, we all know that campus life is truly unlike any other. As fall break rolled around, many students were seen with their carry-on luggage, opting to travel to literally anywhere else. Regardless of where we went, we all had one thing in common: our genuine unfamiliarity with many once-normal experiences. As an ode but also a lament, Bwog has compiled a list of our favorite living habits that we actually forgot about and will miss dearly as we return to our regular lives.

The beds are tall here. Sure, it is a sacrifice that must be made to allow for the much-needed storage space, but we shorter students missed not having to jump into our beds. Climbing or using a small stool to get into bed has become a daily struggle. What’s even worse is when we forget something and have to jump down just to make the long journey back up.

Waiting to use the bathroom. Whether it’s in a suite or the communal bathrooms, we all know the struggle of having to wait for a turn at the sink or shower. Over the break, we either experienced a lack of present suite/floormates or had the privilege of having our own bathroom, and forgot all about the wait times we were once used to.

Gross showers. Depending on your dorm situation, this may not be a big issue, but checking shower drains for masses of hair or mold has become a common practice for many. We almost forgot that some people can shower without doing an entire sanitation check.

Being barefoot. Initially, we thought this just applied to the extremely odd feeling of cold tile on our feet (thanks, shower shoes!), but apparently, we forgot how prevalent shoes are in our college lives. It seems like we are constantly wearing slippers of some kind, and the physical feeling of walking room to room without shoes just felt so wrong. 

No IDs? Some of us walked into our houses without having to swipe our ID. It was weird. 

Transportation. This is technically a city issue, but we used cars! Some of us even used trains that weren’t the subway. Overall, we felt very fancy. 

True silence. Some of us actually lost sleep because of how quiet it was. We didn’t hear the usual running outside our doors nor the loud screams outside our windows at 2 am. Somebody needs to make a white noise YouTube video that includes vague sounds of the city ASAP.

Lots of food. For even those of us who stayed on campus, with the closure of almost every dining hall, we had no other choice. We ate homecooked meals, food from actual restaurants, and even takeout. It was actually divine. Going back to John Jay after our four days of culinary luxury may be the biggest hurdle of them all. 

All in all, Bwog wishes the bwest of luck to those re-acclimating to campus life. We did it before, and though it may seem hard, we know we can do it again (and again after Thanksgiving). 

All The Things We Missed via Author