A Love Letter to My Barrows Single

Barrows gets a bad rep, and I’ll admit, it’s not for no reason. The biggest crime is having no AC. The toaster in the third floor kitchen sometimes goes missing. One of the sinks is prone to leaking, so there’s a puddle on the bathroom floor maybe once a month (but I’m a little biased against the sinks because I accidentally dropped my left airpod down the drain). The walls are super thin and some mornings I would be woken up to the sound of my neighbor humming. (Though he could just be a loud hummer.) And three washers and dryers for 130 students is not ideal.

But dorm life everywhere has its ups and downs, and it’s up to you to pick out the positives. For example, we’ve got five showers on my wing of the third floor (which, in my experience, has been more than enough), and the water pressure in the outer two is fantastic—better than the pressure in some of the newer dorms, even. The Barrows staircases have these great big windows that let in incredible light during golden hour. The water from the water bottle refill station is always cold. We never had a bug problem—not like Kahn, the newest dorm on campus, that was perpetually plagued by ants.

And the location is unmatched. Right outside the back door is North Quad, and across the street is Stevie (Stevenson, our main dining hall). To the right is the Science Center (which has the most gorgeous library on campus, in my opinion), and Wilder (which houses DeCafé, Rathskeller, and Umami) is a 3-4 minute walk away.

Though I’m definitely an introvert, I had some lovely neighborly interactions throughout the year. I was always offered help with carrying things—my suitcase, a giant tub of denim for Denim Day, my boxes as I was moving in and out—people going out of their way to open the door from the inside when my hands were full, and near the end of the year, one of my neighbors knocked on my door with a card he was having people sign for our RA.

The dorm community in Barrows is quiet but present. I’d be doing laundry or filling up my water bottle on the first floor and pass by the common room/lobby to see a big group of people curled up on the couches watching a movie or on the couches on the other end of the room, reading a campus publication (I didn’t know anyone actually read those), or doing a puzzle. At the beginning of the year, we all made stove s’mores, and throughout the year, my RA would leave us baked goods that she made.

But this is meant to be a love letter to my single, after all, so let me tell you what made Barrows 314 so great. There's only a few singles in Barrows, and because I was abroad during roommate assignments/the housing lottery and didn't have internet, I was just randomly assigned this room. (Not that I'm complaining.) My window faced North Quad, and directly outside it was a big magnolia tree, which was beautiful to wake up to in the spring. The walls are painted cinder block, not drywall, which is great because you can hang whatever you want (with tape) and the paint won’t peel off and get you fined at the end of the year (as is the case with many other colleges). Plus, my rug fit perfectly between the walls.

The built-in storage unit (a closet, a three-tiered shelf, a dresser with a built-in mirror and light above it, a row of cabinets lining the top, and even a drying rack) made my room feel even bigger than it already was. Unfortunately, I didn't think far ahead enough to take a picture of the full thing, so you'll just have to trust me when I say how awesome it was. The storage unit stuck out a bit from the wall, which created a little nook that my bed fit into perfectly. The window is then right next to the bed, allowing the windowsill to function as the perfect bedside table where I could put my fan in the early fall/late spring and my humidifier in the winter.

I started writing this (admittedly self-indulgent) post during my layover because I was lamenting the loss of my old room and feeling a little nervous about what my new divided double in South would look like. This year, I'm taking one for the team and living in the outside room, which I'm pretty sure has no dressers. South also houses 240 students in total, which is bigger than my high school class (scary for an introvert!). And from the pictures my roommate sent me, compared to my previous single, it looks tiny as hell heck. But I suppose I should be taking my own advice and looking for the positives—another chance to decorate, a newly renovated building with air conditioning, and an awesome roommate (with a minifridge, yay!) who I can’t wait to see again!