I’m sure most of you have seen or heard of the incredibly popular sitcom called ‘Friends,’ where 6 best friends spend every waking moment together, making hundreds of memories over the span of 10 years. Now, we want you to imagine Monica, Rachel, Joey, Chandler, Ross, and Phoebe living in the same apartment together, instead of across the hall; they most certainly would not have stayed friends. We now want you to imagine adding one more friend, subtracting the ages by at least five, switching the location to Elon University, changing the genders to all females, and you will have Danieley N 104, the sophomore year home of Ranya Russo.

“This year I am living in an eight person flat with seven of my best friends, and let me tell you, it is quite the experience. All the expectations that I had entering into this year have slowly dissipated, and I have slowly begun to discover the pros and cons of what my suitemates and I call living in a ‘24 hour rave.’ Here are a few honorable mentions of what I’ve learned from my time in 104.”

1. When you leave for class in the morning and there is no trash, be prepared to come home to four trash bags piled up in the kitchen.

“What no one prepares you for is how much trash can accumulate in a day's time. I understand food, but even I am confused about how this happens.”

2. Your closet, is everyone’s closet

“A common problem me and my suitemates find ourselves having is that we never like our own clothes. No matter what the occasion is, day or night, you will be receiving texts from your suitemates saying ‘I’m wearing your shoes,’ or ‘I am wearing a full Ranya outfit right now.’”

3. Dream about sleeping past 11 am? Keep dreaming, that will never happen again

“When you are living with 7 other girls that all have different class schedules, and different levels of volume control, you will be woken up who knows how many times from the hours of 8 am to 11 am, and will already be notified of last night’s activities or drama without having to directly talk to someone. Warning! Some roommates will be incredibly irritated, but do not fear, they are just sleepy.”

4. Cabinets and Fridge = Fair Game

“While Elon provides us with many dining options not only limited to dining halls, and my second home Qdoba, on a rainy or stressful day, all I want to do is go home, put on a movie and grab my favorite snacks. What I discover when I whip open the cabinets, is that all of the snacks have mysteriously disappeared. I have yet to find the food bandit, but he/she seems to escape my grasp every time.”

“While all of these things may seem annoying, I will never again be able to live with the closest people to me in my home away from home. Of course when living with this many people, there are going to be kinks to work out and improve on, but the memories and laughs will stay with me forever. You will never come home in the afternoon to find a betta fish sitting on your kitchen counter: thank you Emmy and Celia for that one. Or in my case, you will never be able to have a prank war with your next door neighbors, who happen to be your best guy friends, finding all of your entire living room flipped upside down, literally. Whenever you need to release your daily stress or cry into someone’s shoulder, one of your girlfriend’s will blast ‘Pump it Up’ as loudly as they can until you drag yourself out of bed and start dancing like a maniac.”

“To many more pros, cons, game nights, and all nighters ‘Oceans 8.’”

xoxo,

Ranya

So No One Told You Life Was Gonna Be This Way

1. When you leave for class in the morning and there is no trash, be prepared to come home to four trash bags piled up in the kitchen.

2. Your closet, is everyone’s closet

3. Dream about sleeping past 11 am? Keep dreaming, that will never happen again

4. Cabinets and Fridge = Fair Game