Art by Alexander Hayes
Debell, Miller, Banowsky, Peppers — is a dorm really a home away from home or is it just what it is, a dorm?
Now that school is starting to run on a routine and the initial excitement of college is dying down, many freshmen (and even upperclassmen) are suddenly realizing the reality of college. Homesickness starts to kick in, or at least the longing for a cozy, comfortable place to call home.
A brief survey conducted by the Graphic concludes that 68 percent of Pepperdine freshmen consider their dorm simply a dorm, while only 48 percent of non-freshmen do. Meanwhile, 32 percent of polled freshmen attach the label “home” to their dorms. As expected, a larger percentage of polled non-freshmen are comfortable calling their living quarters “home.” The results suggest that it does indeed take time for students to make themselves at home.
Despite the fact that freshmen are the newbies on campus, they don’t have to feel like they are living in a completely strange place. There are lots of ways to make themselves feel more at home. Sophomores and upperclassmen offer some practical advice on how to make dorms and the whole college experience in general more comfortable.
“Don’t go home every weekend,” sophomore Dilan Tucker said.
It’s normal to have the urge to run back home whenever things get hard here. After all, students won’t have to deal with things like roommate drama and laundry at home. At the same time, it would be difficult for freshmen to adjust to college life if they have a “safety nest” to return to every weekend. It simply makes them less motivated to try harder to adjust.
One way freshmen can make their new rooms feel like their old ones back home is to simply make it look more like their old room.
“Bring things from your old room so it feels like your old room. Bring lots of pictures,” sophomore Kelly Burris said.
Some upperclassmen believe that home is really about the people they surround themselves with. Back home, students are surrounded by parents, siblings and even pets, but at college, students are surrounded solely by peers. The transition from being with people of all ages to being with people of the same age is not a small one. Having friends is crucial to the adjustment process. Building strong friendships is a great way to feel more at home.
“Make your surrounding roommates and suitemates feel at home and they will do the same for you,” junior Carissa Heller said.
The question arises as to whether students consciously say “home.” Some students believe it’s simply habit when they call their dorm “home.” Phrases like “I’m going home now” and “I left my notebook at home” are just routine.
“[When I say ‘I’m going home,’] it’s more like a slip of tongue than actually thinking my dorm is home, ” sophomore Justina Huang said.
Over time, it’s only normal for students to feel more and more at comfortable at Pepperdine. Many freshmen have pointed out that house activities with RAs, SLAs and fellow dorm mates make them feel more connected with each other and also help ease their uneasiness about being away from home.
“Coming together with the other girls from my dorm to connect with God during ‘recess’ makes me feel like I have a mini family away from home,” freshman Meredith Winn said about the weekly community time at Debell.
The difference in statistics may be attributed to the different living quarters for freshmen and non-freshmen. Quite a few upperclassmen believe that their living area on campus is more home-like because they have a kitchen and a less communal bathroom. The possibility to cook home-style food and use of the bathroom does make things a little different. Although freshmen obviously don’t have access to these things, it is something they can look forward to in the coming years.
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As published in the Sept. 19 issue of the Pepperdine Graphic.
