My best friend from high school and I came to Kent State together expecting the college life you see in the movies. We expected our dorms to be full of studs walking around in boxers and girls who would be our best friends for life. But what we got was a neighbor with a temperamental alarm clock and a love for Chingy.

I hated everything about living in the dorms, and so did my best friend because she dropped out after one semester.

I was left alone in paper thin walls on a floor of mostly stuck-up sophomores who already had friends and didn’t need another freshman to take under their wing. So, instead of getting involved and trying to meeting new people, I did what so many other freshmen do – I went home on the weekends.

I went home to avoid the security guards who would tell us to be quiet for laughing too loud. I went home to avoid getting pulled out of my room to play Harry Potter trivia even though I’d never seen or read any of the material. I went home to avoid temptations of eating anything with nacho cheese on it at 4 a.m. just because a meal plan feels like free money.

I did eventually meet another girl on my floor and we became great friends. But then, she told me she was transferring to Ohio State for many reasons, one being so she could live in an apartment and not a dorm.

At this point, I was seriously considering moving back home and transferring to Youngstown State.

You almost lost me to YSU, which is located in the heart of the ninth most dangerous city in the United States and notoriously referred to as You Screwed Up.

Our accredited journalism school was the one thing that kept me here.

Administrators are so interested in freshmen retention. I have a great idea – don’t force students to live in a room where you can clearly hear a sneeze two doors down and feel obligated to say bless you.

So many people cheat the system anyway and say they’re living at home but really live near campus. The dorms are so terrible to some people they have stooped to lying and falsifying paper work.

The first semester of my freshman year may have been the worst couple months of my life. The first semester of my sophomore year may have been the best couple months of my life, which is directly correlated to being dorm-free.

I don’t have to sleep in a twin bed or listen to an alarm clock go off for an hour straight. I don’t have to listen to hip-hop in the early hours, and I can properly cook a healthy meal.

Yes, some people have had a great dorm experience and love everything about the dorms. So let them live there.

Jessica Lumpp is a sophomore magazine major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected]