What a Lou

I can say that so far, I genuinely enjoy college. College teaches you time management and social skills and the fact that you can no longer have your mom call the school to handle your problems. College is the place to appreciate a truly amazing peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a 20-minute break for a power nap between classes.

Now that I have a few years of college under my belt (hardly wisdom but let’s go with it), I feel as though I have learned to appreciate the finer things in life.

Something that a journey to Oregon for the university experience has taught me is to always do a close inspection of whatever bathroom it is that you will be living with.

Ask every possible question.

Get under that sink.

Stand under the showerhead with you shoes on.

Lay in the tub.

Check for ants.

Do anything and everything you could possibly do to make sure this bathroom will be up to your needs because wow.

My freshman year of college our bathrooms were horrid. First, they were old and yellow, bless the woman that cleaned them each day. Once the temperature reached above 75 degrees it would steam up and stay that way. It would be humid and sticky the moment you entered, the toilet seats often damp and the walls sweating.

Once the temperature dropped below 55 degrees or it rained in any way, the ants would appear. The school never did anything about them and only gave us one ant trap the size of a matchbox.

Like a small matchbox, not the hefty ones your dad would randomly have on shelves throughout the house.

Also, when I say ants, I don’t believe I am heard.

I mean, ants. Not just a small trail on the ground from one crack in the floor to a drain. I mean from the walls to the drain to the sinks to light switches to the electrical outlets to the toilets to the cracks in the floor to the ceiling to the…

Just everywhere. Horrendous.

My sophomore year was a bit better, still a communal bathroom so that wasn’t great but at least there were fewer ants. There were almost 30 of us to just a few showers which didn’t help the hair buildup that occurred on the drains… gross.

Now in my junior year, my friend and I moved off campus so I assumed it would be better, at least it is just us here rather than an entire community.

We found our apartment 2 weeks before school started which meant we were in a bit of a rush. So, no, I did not follow my own advice in terms of thoroughly checking the bathroom.

The next time you are in the shower, do me a favor and just check to see where the showerhead is located in comparison to your eye level. Usually it is far above eye level so that the water falls down onto you.

As a woman with Latino descent, I have very thick and curly hair that take some serious maintenance. Our showerhead was installed just slightly below my eye level. Which means the water is facing downwards shooting at approx. my chest/ shoulder if I’m lucky.

It sucks. To explain you the angles in which I have to bend and lean simply to get my hair damp in any sense would be abysmal.

Who knows what will happen next year, but I hope that someone can learn from my tale?

Check your new prospective bathroom selfishly.