Life Lessons Learned From Living in Res

Poignant advice from a dorm-room expert for your first year living away from home.

Rolling up posters and packing away teenage ephemera isn’t easy. But leaving Burnaby at 18 wasn’t something I ever questioned – it was something I always knew I’d do. In 2007, I became a Torontonian and moved into student residence (aka res) at Ryerson.


Student res rooms are generally cold human filing cabinets and mine was no different. The walls were made of white concrete and my mattress was apparently manufactured with a mandate against comfort. It’s the price you pay for living under one roof with 500 other students, which is just as fun it sounds.


Still, no amount of new friends, parties and essays will take away from the fact that home-cooked dinners and a well-stocked fridge are miles away. When you leave home at 18, absence really makes the heart grow fonder. You’ll find you need your parents more than ever now that you’re faced with very adult responsibilities (like buying toilet paper and sending yourself to the dentist). Get a long distance phone plan or download Skype; a close relationship with home offers strength to be independent. It sounds like a paradox, but every time I get off the phone with my parents I feel better.


My biggest piece of advice is to live in res for your first year of university. You’ll meet people who are in the exact same boat as you. These friendships will be different than any you’ve forged at home; your res friends will feel more like a stand-in family than just people who you hang with on the weekend.


Four years, one degree and many, many espresso shots later, I can say I made one life-changing decision and I’m a better person for it. At 22, this feels pretty good.