In every housing situation, there’s some good and bad. For every broken dishwasher, there’s a fun meal shared with your friends, remembered for years to come. The Daily Illini opinions team went around the Main Quad asking students for interesting stories related to their particular housing situation.
Housing successes
“I was just walking back into the dorms after being kind of stressed out from the day, and there’s like six people by my door, just sitting on the ground, talking,” said Ashley Lulkin, freshman in LAS. “And they’re like, ‘Oh my God, come join us.’ So, I just sat down, and we ended up talking for, like, an hour there. It was really cute, and it made my day better.”
“The first day going into my friend’s dorm floor — he had told me about some interesting people on the floor, and so I just expected it would be just a little bit more lively than my normally quiet floor,” said Justin Dyser, freshman in Business. “When I walk in, it’s as if the Last Supper is taking place and there’s a whole meal spread out all over the tables. About five to six people and one of my friends were chowing down on some Indian food they ordered in. And so, from the impression of someone on a relatively quiet floor, it was shocking to see people out and about.”
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Housing failures
“I don’t think I was prepared for the heat that came around the first week, because I was barely sleeping,” said Claudia O’Grodny, freshman in LAS. “I was never getting work done, so I’m glad the weather cleared up. I would literally sit in front of my fridge, have my fridge open 24/7 and it was just not a pleasant experience.”
“First thing: In the parking garage, the ceiling above my car, the roof gave out,” said Olivia Elkin, senior in LAS. “So, all of the ceiling dropped on the top of my car. So, that was fun. Nobody told me about that. My sink got flooded three different times, I had to get a new garbage disposal. My AC was broken for four days in 100-degree heat. You know how there’s balcony doors that are like glass? Mine shattered — the glass just completely shattered.”
“OK, so one day I wake up, it’s 8:50 in the morning and I have a 9 a.m. class in the English Building,” said Zyra Sheikh, junior in Engineering. “And I lived at PAR, so it was, like, quite a trek. I look at the bus schedule, I’m like, OK, I have 5 minutes. I can make it to class. I’ll be late, but it’s fine. So, I go to the PAR bathroom and I open the door, and through the mirror I make eye contact with my neighbor who was butt naked on the toilet. And then I closed the door and left. We never really spoke about it properly, but it was quite a traumatic moment for me. I’m glad it happened the way it did, cause if it was reversed, I think I would have literally just died. Like, I would have been mortified.”
Megan is a sophomore in Media.
Aaron is a sophomore in Media.
Talia is a junior in LAS.
Maggie is a junior in Media.
