When I was in high school, all I could think about was how much I wanted to go to college. I always imagined that I would go to a big state school and major in business. I was set on that idea pretty much my entire life, that is, until I found Union. When I visited for the first time and experienced the friendliness of the people and the community that Union had to offer I knew I wanted to come here. It was the only place I applied to, and now, here I am.
When I saw Union’s dorms for the first time I was ecstatic. I mean, our own rooms, a shared living space with a kitchen and washer and dryer and no communal bathrooms: how much better could it get? Plus, I grew up in a family of four, so having four roommates felt very normal to me.
When I found out who my roommates were for freshman year I immediately made a Pinterest board for our room and planned out every single detail of what it was going to be like. And hence, the journey to make our little dorm into a home commenced.
As much as the physical aspect of a dorm contributes to making it feel like a home, so do the people that live in it. It’s important to find people that you are comfortable with and that live similarly to you. However, with the apartment style dorms that we have at Union, it can be difficult to even know if you will live well with other people. So, as many of us experience, sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and trust that the Lord knows what He is doing, even with your living situations.
I’ve thought a lot about what it would look like if Union had residence halls where you have one roommate versus three, or what it would be like if we all lived right across from one another like one big family. There’s a part of me that believes it would be easier for students to build friendships and community with the people around them. But, there’s another part of me that realizes that true community takes effort to build, regardless of the style of dorm you live in.
Having friendships and strengthening bonds with the people you live with takes intentionality. If students live with their friends it can be easy for them to see one another everyday and yet never have a real conversation. This is a sad truth about the busyness of college. However, exercising the muscles of reaching out should be a priority in all of our friendships, even with our roommates.
At Union especially, since students do have their own rooms and spaces, reaching out can feel like a burdensome task. Community does not seem to be handed over on a silver platter like at some colleges, and yet this isn’t a bad thing. If community takes effort to build then that means we are all learning how to be intentional friends. This is a life skill that we will use for the rest of our lives. It prepares us for our adult lives, where we no longer live in a sea of our peers and where true friendships can be hard to come by. The reality of post-college can be daunting, and I think this is one way that Union prepares its students well for the world that they will soon encounter.
“The dorms at Union definitely provide a different feeling of community within buildings as opposed to hall-style living spaces,” Hannah Freeland, junior communications major, said. “But since people have up to three roommates instead of one and are a little more closed in together I think roommate community specifically is also affected.”
Freeland explained how Union’s dorm style teaches students to live more “cohesively” with their roommates. This is something special that I believe Union has to offer. Students have the opportunity to learn to live with several people who come from various backgrounds and homes. This can often be a challenge; however, it can be a very rewarding one if we let it.
“For me, I’ve always had good roommates. My best friend and I have roomed together since freshman year, and our other roommates have changed each year since then, but all of those girls we’ve lived with still remain some of my closest friends on campus,” Freeland said.
This is another unique experience that the dorms at Union provide. Because each person has three roommates, it is more likely that those roommates will move around and live with different people each year. This may seem like a sad reality rather than a joyous one, but many students have recounted that those people remain their friends for years to come.
Being intentional in our friendships, even if those friendships are roommates we no longer live with, is one of the key ways that we can promote deeper bonds with the people around us. These are the ties that bind us together for the four years we are at Union and, ultimately, this intentionality can become the cornerstone of our community.
I think this is ultimately why Union’s dorms are as special as they are. From an outside perspective, it could seem like the dorms would close off community. But really, it’s the people in them that foster it.
“Some of my favorite memories each year come from times we were all in the room just doing life together and enjoying being in the space we had together,” Freeland said.
Well written!