Most of us signed up to live in the dorms to take in the classic university experience: roommates, dining hall food, communal bathrooms and every other element featured in countless college movies. But we didn’t know that dorms serve as much more than a simple living place. There are key parallels between dorm life and life after college, also known as the much-feared “real world.”

Since we’re not quite at that point in our lives yet, the most we can do is pay attention, take notes and keep our eyes peeled. We need to stay sensitive to any potential nuggets of wisdom that dorm life can reveal.

1. Living in a room roughly the size of a linen closet

This may be a tough one to come to terms with at first. Where will I put my 12-speaker stereo system? How will I align my collection of 100-plus classic Beanie Babies? And most importantly, where will I possibly fit my 9-by-6-foot poster of Nicolas Cage? The real world is hard. Life isn’t kind to those who own giant pictures of Nicolas Cage, and you might have to reassess your priorities if you do.

Bottom line: Sometimes you have to let go of large parts of your past that drag you down. As life unfolds, you’ll have to make difficult choices about what to keep hold of and what to leave behind.

2. Roommates chosen by the lottery system

Surprise! It’s your new roommate. This person has introduced you to strange music and even stranger sleeping habits. Nonetheless, you had never met them in your life, and now you both share close quarters with each other on a regular basis. You begin to question their sanity when they bring a live squirrel into the room, but you don’t actually say anything because you want to seem like a cool, accepting person.

Bottom line: Life is full of surprises. Whether it’s the good kind or the other kind, it’s important to face them head-on and tackle what you can. If you keep an open mind, sometimes a nasty surprise can lead to an unexpectedly positive outcome.

3. Dining hall food cooked without love

I get it. Everyone misses their mother’s cooking, and everything else is just not the same. But think about it: Besides your mother herself, who makes the food mean so much more than just basic sustenance? The company of others. Friends can help fill the void left by your favorite home-cooked meal. You might even say that a healthy lunch or dinner conversation is a recipe for success in the dorms.

Bottom line: Don’t be shell-shocked by something different, assuming it won’t live up to your sky-high standards. Reality is about taking what you’ve been given and using it to your advantage. Go make some lemonade with those lemons!

4. Is that a spider in this shower or just a weird spot of paint?

Shared dorm bathrooms. They sound about as attractive as your dog after he rolled around in some mysterious smelly substance. Over the months, you get used to seeing everyone in their towels, crossing paths to the sink, and complaining about stopped-up showers. Every so often, you wonder how many people, over the course of the dorm’s lifetime, have used each particular toilet. Then you stop thinking about it because you don’t actually want to know the answer.

Bottom line: But where do you have some of the best (and possibly strangest) out-of-the-blue conversations? In the bathroom. So although some situations may not be very pleasant, there is always potential for some memorable chats in passing.

Dorms serve us in many ways, but it’s not only as living places. We may not realize their potential for life lessons, which can come up often in this seemingly normal college environment. So every time you swipe your iCard, remember that there is more to be revealed within these dorm walls.

Reema is a sophomore in FAA and can be reached at [email protected].