Dorm life has more to offer than bad food

On-campus living allows for personal growth, a connection to
communityBy Tahira Hoke

"Tahira, are you still in the dorms?" I have answered this
question almost every month I have lived here at UCLA. After four
years, 400 friends, and four jobs that I work simultaneously, I
will be leaving my legacy at 2 North, Hedrick Hall.

I am going to be straight up with you! I know all the pros and
cons to living in the dorms. However, despite whatever I say, you
still have to experience it for yourself.

It is like that movie that all of your friends hated but when
you went, you happened to like it. The dorms are similar. I know
people who liked the dorms and people who moved out after the first
month. My decision to stay had to do with a lot of personal
reasons.

My first year, I struggled financially, emotionally, and
academically. In the dorms I met people who were also stressing out
about life.

I didn’t care about my floor or even really talk to my Resident
Assistant (R.A). But there was one night that I knocked on my
R.A.’s door at 3 a.m. I was experiencing shortness of breath, and I
had no one to take me to the hospital. My R.A. took me there at 3
a.m. and brought me back at 6 a.m. After that, I gave my R.A. some
points for being cool.

Basically, I had to rough my first year. The dorm life was not
my problem; dealing with a new environment and new people was.

Personally, I had no love for the food, showers or quiet hours
at the beginning of my first year. However, as the year went by, I
learned how to be creative and enjoy myself. For example, the food
was bland and sometimes unidentifiable, but I made some
masterpieces with the right side dishes, toppings and a couple of
minutes in the microwave. I guess it was a matter of the survival
of the fittest in the cafeteria.

Another dorm-life situation involved taking a shower. Unless you
lived in suites at Sunset Village, the temperature of the showers
was controlled by the flushing of the toilets. It took a powerful
hall government to make that change. In fact, all of the complaints
that people had about the dorms were handled by the hall
government. I feel proud to say that I supervised several floor
governments that complained about everything from the types of
cereal and salad dressing in the cafeteria to the colors of the
couches and cable TV in the rooms. With the cooperation of the hall
management and the Resident Director, many of these issues were
resolved.

This aspect of dorm life is not isolated from the real world. I
lived in apartments for 90 percent of my life before I came to
UCLA. There, the residents complained to their landlords about
change needed in their building but did nothing. Similarly, those
dorm residents who moaned about everything but did nothing had a
bad experience in the dorms.

Instead of complaining about superficial issues that could be
fixed, I challenged myself to understand the social issues of the
UCLA community. You might ask: "How is that possible in the
dorms?"

Well, when you live in the dorms you get a taste of all the
different cliques that divide the campus racially, sexually and
socially. The way I see it, in the dorms the have and the have-not,
the black and the white, and the introvert and the extrovert are
mixed together in one floor or house.

In these places they are forced to get along by the R.A. who
puts on different types of awareness programs or mediates roommate
conflicts.

Interestingly enough, on their first day in the dorms, students
see their parents’ true colors as well as their own true colors.
Instead of enjoying the experience of finding your room and
claiming your part of UCLA, there are many of you out there that
check to see if your roommate is a "Heather," "Nguyen," or
"Jackson." If your parents were racist enough, they asked the
resident director to make a room change on the first day. Educated
racist at UCLA? Face the reality.

What is it that people really hate about the dorms? Too much
diversity in the food, the people and their languages! I think that
those people who cannot live out of their comfort zone are those
who really miss a big part of the college experience.

If you really think living with your homies who are the same
race and come from the same background as you represents the real
world … Wake up!

Don’t get me wrong! I don’t think the dorms are the only place
where you can grow socially and politically and learn
responsibility. However, I do feel like it is a good place to start
out.

From the inside of dorm life, I have seen and learned about
people and their experiences and problems, which reflect our larger
society, in contrast to the politician-concocted issues which
segregate and pay tribute to special-interest groups.

The issues of dorm society are those that have no color lines. I
have counseled many people from different ethnicities on eating
disorders, relationship problems, rape, suicide and other issues
that have no politically-correct label. As an R.A., people used to
ask me, "Do people really come to talk to you?" This question would
usually come from the soul of someone who was hurt or struggling
through a problem and crying on my dorm couch. I never tried to
solve anyone’s problem, just offer alternative approaches and
possible solutions.

Not everyone talks to their R.A. but I hope that I helped the
one resident that I did talk to in some way.

My main point is that the dorms have a lot to offer. Your
experience will be what you take away. For a safe haven from all
the divisive issues that the real world deals with, stay in your
comfort zone. But if you want to take a challenge, seek resolutions
to those issues and see what being in college is all about, try it
out.

As a veteran dorm student, I have grown spiritually,
professionally and socially. Yes, we all come from a different race
and space, but let’s try to deal with the issues that America needs
to face.

Tahira Hoke is a fourth-year psychology student and R.A. in
Hedrick Hall.

PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin

Players outside of Dykstra Hall enjoy a midday game of
basketball. Basketball courts are one of the many benefits that
on-campus housing offers.