5. Garland Hall construction
Picture this: It is 9:25 am, and you are walking to your first class of the day (let’s be real, we’ve all stopped arriving early to class now that we’re four weeks in). It is way too early in the morning, when all of a sudden, you hear this agitating, grating noise. What could it possibly be other than the Garland Hall construction, which seems to go on at all hours of the day. As you walk to your Spanish class, for which you definitely have not done the homework, you are greeted by the sounds of drilling, jackhammering, and Lord-knows-what-else. Your stress about your upcoming midterms is replaced with stress over the possibility of that giant red crane dropping approximately five tons of steel on your head. Those cables just do not seem strong enough.
4. Someone in your hall lofting their bed at midnight
The day pigs fly will also be the day your hallmates decide to loft their beds at a normal hour of the day, as opposed to 12:32 am. You were trying to go to bed early because your first calc exam is tomorrow, but you already wasted approximately one hour scrolling TikTok. Now that you’ve finally gone to bed and were about to fall asleep, you hear loud banging coming from a few rooms down. You are awoken to the sound of rubber on metal, and left wondering why college kids seem to lack understanding of their surroundings. Also, how the heck are y’all lofting your beds by yourselves or with only one roommate helping??? That’s like a four-person job.
3. Your phone pinging as the university sends you yet another irrelevant email
Inner VU, Brightspace, YES Message Center, Immersion Vanderbilt, and many, many more. I get approximately 20 emails a day from Vanderbilt. Every 30 minutes, my phone pings or vibrates. While I’m studying, while I’m eating, while I’m talking to friends, I am constantly being distracted by the buzz of yet another email cluttering up my inbox. And the worst part is, only like one in five such emails is actually relevant. Because tell me why Brightspace sends an email for every assignment you turn in. Back in the days of Canvas, there was no confirmation your assignment actually went through. You just had to pray. Also, can we talk about how YES sends an email every time you get a message, but won’t actually let you see the message through the email? Who came up with that???
Note: It took me only 3 days to get to that number of unread emails.
2. Your roommate’s alarm going off for their 8 am
It’s 7:20 am, and your roommate’s alarm is going off yet again after they pressed snooze for the third time. Your class is not until 11 am, and you were hoping to sleep in, but alas, you are pulled from your slumber as your roommate struggles to climb off their lofted bed and gets ready for class. You think to yourself, “How did we ever survive this in high school?” as you bury your head in your blanket to block out the noise of your roommate eating breakfast (since we’ve all given up on the dining hall breakfast) and try to fall back asleep. And the worst part: you have to deal with this three times a week for the rest of the semester.
1. Electric scooters nearly hitting you as you walk to class
You’ve never had a near-death experience until you experience an electric scooter zooming around a corner and nearly hitting you from behind. You both hear and feel the rush of air as the scooter flies past and you narrowly escape with your life. And these scooter riders seem to have no regard for safety as they swerve between groups of walking students and make sharp turns without looking. That bridge between Commons and Main is the #1 Danger Zone. If I ever end up in the hospital, these scooters will be the reason why. The scooter-ers also seem to have no regard for how goofy they look riding a scooter like an elementary schooler while the rest of us walk. And I’m sorry but I just can’t take y’all seriously when you try to fit those giant scooters in the dorm elevators and get it stuck in the doorway. Like be for real.