Nearly two weeks have passed since I spent my last night in Lincoln Hall, or in any Ohio University residence hall for that matter, but I have yet to come to terms with my new status as an off-campus resident.
Since I first came to Athens, I wanted little more than to escape from the dorms. As an 18-year-old freshman, there was little that appealed to me about maximum-level stereo bass thumping through the walls, communal bathrooms or pesky RAs.
But as my time in Biddle, Gamertsfelder and Lincoln rolled along, I started to enjoy -even rely upon -the residence halls.
Perhaps my eyes were shielded by rose-colored glasses, but coming home to those residence halls every day for nearly two calendar years was comforting. There was something reassuring about knowing that every night someone would make a bag of popcorn and watch a movie, or just sit in the hall until 2 a.m. shooting the breeze and talking about quixotic plans for the future.
Now one of five men living in an eight-room house on Stimson Avenue, I no longer have 30 or 40 friends upon whose door I can knock without walking outside. There will be no more Super Bowl parties in the lobby or dinner trips to Shively or Jefferson or Bromley.
Meals, especially, will be difficult to handle. Though I am able to cook more than ramen noodles and Hot Pockets, those dining halls were convenient: perhaps not the healthiest option, but one that was ready-made, at least. Sure, watching Jeopardy! over dinner is a luxury not previously afforded, but I would trade it for one more Ole Bar.
And while, silently, I complained about all three of my roommates for their various idiosyncrasies, I will miss both the camaraderie and responsibility that comes with sharing a room with another person. Living in a single room, albeit with another guy living on the other side of the wall, that responsibility has faded some. There would be no more doubles.
During the early days of exam week, I helped a close friend move the contents of her third-floor Bromley room to her mother's car, which was parked along the hill that is South Congress. While disassembling her loft and dragging boxes of books and parts of her computer to the car, I realized for the first time that she would never again enter an OU residence hall as a resident. Then I realized that, three days from that time, neither would I.
Moving off campus, I suppose, is a necessary step on the road to the proverbial real world
no matter that it is a step filled with pesky landlords, annoying house parties and the lessons learned regarding trash and cleaning. While in the residence halls, one is able to neglect many of life's real responsibilities -bills, cleaning, dealing with neighbors across the street. A house is so much more. Here's hoping the rest of my life in a house goes as smoothly as the last eight days.
-LaWell is campus editor of The Summer Post. Send him an e-mail at matthew.lawell@ohiou.edu 17
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Matt LaWell
