Pampered students miss out on life lessons

College is the first place many people experience roommates, responsibility, and weight gain. Freedom abounds as students figure out how to make new friends all over again, how to live with someone, how to take care of their own laundry, bathe themselves regularly in a public bathroom, and ration a meal plan without wasting money or sacrificing health.

Learning how to interact with people comes from living with them, dealing with being sexiled, and making decisions about who should vacuum the next time around. These things prepare students for life after the college bubble bursts, when rent needs to be split and apartment-mates need to be kept happy.

That’s why, after reading The Washington Post’s article about the increase of colleges (like American University) providing double-sized beds in dorm rooms, about more single rooms (because it’s what young people are used to now), and about the occasionally provided extensive dorm-room maid service (because college kids don’t think they should be held responsible for the cleanliness of their own living space), we think it’s time to say something to our peers: Grow up.

Learning to get along with people and to live responsibly with little means is part of becoming an adult, and being catered to by campus housing services hampers the maturation process.

In short, deal with normal college life. In the long run, learning to cope with odd living situations prepares you for other oddities ahead, perhaps not unlike the loud and messy cubicle neighbor. Don’t put it upon yourselves to deprive youth of dorm-room horror stories. It is a student’s responsibility to learn, not to be spoiled.