Living in residence is one of those things that seems great at first, but slowly pushes you into anxiety. Don’t worry too much though, since there are things you could do to make your time in rez easier.
If you have a roommate, the first thing you want to do is make sure you don’t have problems along the way. Try to get along with them by playing board games or cooking together. After you have seemingly become friendly, you should set rules such as cleanup and noise-related standards. You should also find a way to communicate any problems that you might have with your roommates, such as leaving passive-aggressive sticky notes (which may not be the best solution).
Pick a day and time to clean your room. Rooms get messy quickly, so take an hour or two out of your week to clean everything and do laundry. The best time to do laundry is probably early in the morning (but who would want to?) or in the middle of a weekday, as everyone has free time on weekends — the ideal chore day.
The front desk has a lot of things for you to do. Each residence has games, such as pool and board games, and movies that you can borrow at the front desk. All you have to do is show your WatCard and ask to borrow something like Apples to Apples. If you find that your roommates or neighbours are getting too noisy, there are study rooms in your community centre. If you live at UWP, the Grand Commons is also a nice place to study and comes with a Tim Hortons.
Remember to always take your keys with you when leaving your residence. Just because your roommates are home, doesn’t mean they will open the door for you. If you have locked yourself out, you can go to the front desk and they will lend you spare keys for only a few minutes. Also, remember to lock your dorm room before you go out since robberies do happen and stuff does get stolen.
There are grocery shuttles that come every Saturday. Even if you live in traditional-style residences, you can go and buy yourself snacks. Investing in a mini-fridge might be useful to keep snacks such as fruit or yogurt in your room if you are living in a traditional-style rez and are tempted to eat fast food every day. If you live in a suite-style rez, don’t just buy frozen foods. Even if you don’t know how to cook, you should stock up on healthy snacks such as fruits and veggies. If you find that cooking is tedious and hard, just make yourself a sandwich or search up five-minute recipes on the Internet.
As you go by your residence days, you might learn when the best time to avoid your roommates and neighbours are or what time people use the showers the most. You might even start to consider things like whether or not you should bring slippers and a bathrobe to shower. You should also look out for activities and trips planned by your ResCouncil since that is another way to make your life at rez more enjoyable. Just have a good time knowing that you’re partially parent-free.
