Livin’ la vida dorm life

When the time came to pack all my belongings into the back of my mom’s white Exterra to travel nine hours by car to start my life as a college student, I was overwhelmed with a romanticized idea of what I thought college life might be like.

I envisioned myself on my teal cruiser, biking with the fresh mountain air twisting through my golden hair, a few books set neatly in my little woven basket. I excitedly went from class to class, meeting new people along the way as I worked my tail off to become the best journalist I could possibly be. I thought I might explore the downtown area of Coeur d’Alene for a coffee shop from time to time, working on my writing or just to relaxing at with a tight-knit group of friends that might resemble the Scooby Doo gang.

It’s been almost three weeks since move-in day and if someone were to ask me how I feel about living in the dorms, I’d saying something like this:

Living in the dorms here at NIC nearly levels up to my expectations. I feel like a bird released into its natural habitat. When I walk outside the Residence Hall, I am welcomed by the greenery of the surrounding trees and the glimmering lake Coeur d’Alene.

I’ve meet some very interesting people, ranging all the way from a liberal Buddhist cartoonist from Caldwell who is the exact same shade of crazy that I am to an ex-firefighter who is obsessed with the 90s television show “Daria.” As for my friend’s and my entertainment, we played pool and foosball, went on biking adventures with no set destination, went hiking at Marie Creek trail, swam in the lake on a warm day, checked out Calypso’s, a local coffee shop, and walked alongside the beach.

All in all, there are only a few minor setbacks, like the overwhelming feeling of being homesick that comes in the later hours of the night, the amount of quarters it takes to do a single load of laundry, having miscellaneous and normally trivial-items inaccessible, the fact that the cafeteria closes so early on the weekends, and the fact that I have to stock up on food out in my dorm.