What to expect when you move off-campus
As junior and senior year come along, many naïve, young Brunonians trade in their plastic storage bins for Ikea dressers and move off of (or sometimes even closer onto) campus. Sometimes, the move brings out the HGTV in people. But if you’re anything like the ten girls that I moved in with (yes, I willingly created a sorority house), you’ll spend so long trying to install a working router that you’ll forget to even buy yourself a rug. So, for the less domestic among us, here is a simple guide for what to expect when you move off campus.1. You’ll quickly find out that you’re pettier than you realized... Those two cups that have been in the sink for eight days straight? There’s no way they’re yours. You’re almost positive they’re not, anyway. People need to learn a lesson around here, so under no circumstances will you give in and wash them.2. …And that your roommates are too. Another week goes by and the cups are still in the sink. No one comes forward. You all wash your individual dishes when you know others are watching, and have begun to drink coffee out of red Solo cups both in protest and out of necessity.3. You might—dare I say it—miss the Ratty. The first time you stare down a $4 bag of lettuce, your heart will ache for the days of unlimited soggy romaine. To-go boxes, once just a hassle, have begun popping up in your dreams at night, and you wake up frantically wondering who can sneak you in and how to arrange your backpack to maximize the number of Tupperware containers it can hold. 
Huge amounts of pre-cooked food! And Caesar Augustus out front!
4. The bathroom doesn’t clean itself. Take point one, and then apply it to hair in the shower drain. If you wait as long as you can for it to build up, someone has to take it out, right? Right?5. Utilities...exist. One of Brown University’s greatest strengths is its ability to confine its Wifi radius to on-campus buildings. Move five feet off the Main Green and you’ll quickly find yourself yelling at Steve from Verizon who still hasn’t sent you the right cord for your extender.6. You may never make a new friend again. Living with ten friends, I learned this truth fairly early on. Why leave your house when you have food to eat and friends to eat it with, all within a twenty-foot proximity of your bed?7. In the end, after you finally buy a rug, it’s worth it. As you crawl into your best friends’ beds for a Saturday morning gossip session, you’ll instantly (though perhaps transiently) forgive them for every dish in the sink and every light left on overnight.Images via, via.
