Before coming to university, my biggest fear was the washrooms, or more specifically, the cleanliness of them. What would happen if I needed to use the washrooms in the AM? Would the lights be on, or would it be like a scene from Harry Potter where the water is dripping and I hear demonic hissings? What if all the stalls were occupied? What if somebody had been sick in the bathroom? After almost a year living in res, I’m glad to say that…I’m definitely moving out next year and the bathroom is a big reason why.

You’d think that living on an all-girls’ floor would mean it’d be clean, right? I mean, aren’t girls supposed to embody hygiene and rainbows and sparkles and whatnot? This turned out to be a lie when I discovered my friend’s co-ed floor had a bathroom cleaner than mine. My optimistic image of girls being clean has been shattered now, but I’m glad to say that it has definitely taught me to adapt to even the worse of situations.

My everyday adventure:

(I apologize for the sideways photos, my iPad was being difficult again.)

1. Go into the stall. Will the toilet be clean? Flushed? I’ve truly learned that not everybody knows how to flush (stand there, pull the switch, and wait for a few seconds). Too many times have I walked into a cauldron, an amalgamation of different types of…stuff. There will be weekends when there will only be one bearable stall left and even that one would be something pretty gross.

2. The sinks. I once saw dirt in the sink. Once we were missing a sink because someone sat on it. I once saw a bloody (what blood?) tissue next to the faucet. But usually it’s not that bad, just some toothpaste and hair, the usual.

The person who dumped her tea leaves into the sink was kind enough to only throw a little away, so it’s only partially clogged now.

3. The showers. If you’ve ever lived in res, you’ll know the trek between your room and the bathroom involves a small migration. Sometimes, you forget something, and you have to go back to your room to get it. However, the showers are what I like best about the bathroom. If someone is showering, the shampoo’s fragrance will fill the air for a few minutes. Even the yellowed shower curtain doesn’t seem that bad…

…until somebody puts a used sanitary napkin on the towel rack, for all the world to see…

You’ll love res and you’ll hate it. You’ll hate it when it’s Sunday and the toilet has been filled with people’s regurgitations for three days already and there’s only one non-disgusting toilet left. You will love it when your friends are minutes away, when you can wake up ten minutes before class and run to school, and when you get to experience everything downtown Toronto has to offer without the restrictions of your parents. Finally, you will definitely love it when you get to move out next year, and you’re a changed, better person who has lived through it. So relish this suffering, because what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. So the take home point. If I and hundreds of other germaphobes can do this, then you can too!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 24th, 2012 at 8:00 am and is filed under Opinion, Residence, UT Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.