My WWU Dorm Room in Bellingham Washington
I go to Western Washington University in Bellingham Washington. The sign says “shoes off. It’s a temple. Respect it.” It’s posted on the outside of my dorm room door. The door opens with a satisfying sound, as you step in the room you are filled with a warm welcoming sensation. This is important to me because the purpose of my room is to be a space that I can be myself and feel completely confortable in, which may be different from the purpose of your room or small house. If you are from the city you may be used to having neighbors all around you, but me on the other hand am from a place with a very large amount of space and not a neighbor for miles away. I am writing this to inform you about dorm rooms and other small living spaces in Bellingham and in general and how they fulfill and don’t fulfill my expectations of living in small spaces with other people all around; dorm rooms, apartments, etc… and my hope is that, if you are like me, maybe you can get a better idea of what it will be like for you or someone close to you living in the dorms at Western Washington University or any small living space.
As you walk into the room the calm music plays with good lows and highs, there are blue Christmas lights lining the celling, prayer flags hanging above the entrance and many posters and tapestries along the walls and many other artwork pieces fill the room. Shoes piled by the door. A Cataluña Flag hangs, skateboards and longboards stacked around the room. Shelves filled with food, tea, books, and pictures of families. Snowboard gear piled high around the heater drying out. All of the appliances stacked on each other: mini fridge, microwave, rice cooker and an espresso machine. You notice two beds, two desks, and two chairs. Yes, this is a two-person dorm. I moved out of my house when I was 14 into a guesthouse, so to me this was a big change, going from living by myself to living in a small room with someone else. A feeling that I assume many people moving into the dorms or other small living spaces have. But besides the beds and the desks the most capturing part of the room, and my personal favorite part, is the huge window that to me gives the room so much more space and relaxation. It has two smaller windows that open on either side of the main window for nice fresh air. My room has a nice view of the trees and the rec soccer field in the distance. The view of the outdoors is what makes this room, without it the room would feel too crowded and claustrophobic. The window is a passageway to the outdoor world; it gives the room life and fills it with natural light. Without the window in the room I do not think I would be able to live there.
As I said before I am living in Bellingham Washington. One of the main reasons I decided to go to Western was because of the town it is in, Bellingham! Bellingham is a beautiful college town on the Pacific North West part of Washington. To me Bellingham is huge coming from a small island but to most it’s a small town. It is right on the coast so you have nice beaches and also is near to Mount Baker. Mount Baker ski area has the world record for recorded snowfall in a single season, so if you like snowboarding or skiing it’s a great place to be a ski bum.
I live in the ridgeway complex (part of Westerns dorms) with my roommate Joe. The ridge is a community of dorms on south campus, there is also Fairhaven and then on north campus you have more dorms. Some dorms are hall style meaning that they have a whole hall that shares a bathroom. Other dorms like mine have a suite style, which means that two or four rooms will share a bathroom. Joe and I luckily got into gamma stack 1 which only has two rooms to a bathroom. Our suitemates Yid, and Pierre are very nice people and we all get along pretty well, so that helps contribute to a clean living situation which is essential to a happy living space. Every week we try to do a bathroom cleanup.
The dorms are bigger than I had imagined, granted, I imagined pretty small. My dorm room is approximately 183 square feet so you have a better idea of the size. When moving to my dorm I thought I had brought way to many things but they all ended up mostly fitting, the room is packed but it’s not too crammed. The nice part is that the closets are a good size. Our room has a walk in closet before you get to the bathroom and it has a good amount of room to store clothes and other things, so that is very helpful but not all rooms are as big.
The hardest part for me moving into the dorms was the loose of my own space which may not happen to you depending on if you have a roommate or not. Not being able to listen to music or watch movies as late as I wanted, and just always having someone else in your room. It took away the feeling of being able to do anything I want in my room and feeling completely at peace in there which is what I look for in my bedroom. Luckily my roommate and I get along well. I did not know Joe before college.
The dorm I live in is nice because it is not hall style and they are good in size. Although personally I am not the biggest fan of living in the dorms or any small living space with people all around, I lost my personal space and the ability to do what I want at anytime in my room. But coming to the dorm I had an idea of what it was going to be like. So all in all if you are like me and love to snowboard or ski and like to have your own personal space Bellingham is amazing just try to get a room to yourself. And if you are a incoming college student or a parent of one I would recommend living in the dorms for the first year, although they are not perfect it’s a really good experience to have in my opinion.
