The Days of Our Freshman Lives: Life in Prosser Annex

To some extent, we are all nervous about college. For some people it’s the coursework, others it’s all of the new people and for some it’s being far away from home. I will admit to being intimidated by all of these things at some point but the thing that I was most unsure of can be summed up into two words: communal living.

How does the roommate thing work? And the whole bathroom thing? Also, are people quiet? Will my room be gross? How does the whole bringing a guest thing work? Even a few weeks in, it’s relatively embarrassing to reveal that those were the things I was the most concerned about. I felt completely ridiculous when, on the first day, I asked my neighbor “How does one take a shower at college?”

But so far, despite almost melting during the first few weeks, life on the second floor of Prosser Annex is not so bad. The weather might be unbearably hot and humid, but the people on the floor are incredibly “chill.” For those of you who may not be aware, or have conveniently forgotten, Prosser does not have air conditioning. My roommate and I have three fans in our room, which is not that many compared to our friends down the hall who have five. You could say that we are all “riding the struggle bus” together. And this was a main reason that we bonded.

Prosser Annex itself is relatively relaxed. For those who may be unfamiliar, Prosser is one building but there are two sections: Prosser Main and Prosser Annex. They are connected, just separate sides of the building. Prosser as a whole has quite the reputation, but Annex is much quieter (at least so far). The main differences between Prosser Main and Prosser Annex are that we have fewer girls on our floor (around 20 in total), our bathroom and hallway are slightly smaller than the ones you would find in Prosser Main, and the floors and lights are different in our hall as well.

Living with a whole bunch of other people can have its downsides. People can be loud and distracting. Places like the bathroom can become a little…much. To be honest, there are some pretty crazy things that happen in college dorms.

But living 10 steps away from your best friends makes all the downsides worth it. There are movie nights, random people screaming, the obnoxious stuff we write on our white boards, or my friend standing outside my door playing “Broccoli” while I’m trying to write a paper. At least for me, it is safe to say that none of this stuff would be happening if I were at home.

It’s nice knowing that when you are excited because you got that ‘A’ or upset because you had a bad day that you can walk in one of a couple directions and be with your best friends.

Dorm living isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. A dorm is a weird place; Prosser is a weird place. We will probably drive each other crazy, if we haven’t already. And some bizarre things are going to happen in the next few months…But they’ll make for great stories.