I stepped off the bus at Perlman for the first time, and was told that my Dorm would be Dorm 1. I figured that this dorm would be like all of the others: a large designated bathroom, slightly bigger rooms, and a homey vibe. But it gave the total opposite vision I was thinking of. 

I soon learned that my dorm is the furthest from every other dorm that is truly consolidated next to each other. I took a look at the walk that I would have to endure every single day for every meal, and thought that it would be a pretty long summer. 

I get to my room, still wondering where the bathroom was. I peep in, quickly take the bottom bunk directly diagonal to the door, and look at the bizarre setup of the bathroom. There was one shower, two toilets, and the sink was next to one of my friends' beds.

I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that we had only one shower, shared between two rooms, meaning roughly ten people would be fighting for it every morning and night. What I didn’t know then was that this exact, inconvenient placement would become the best thing that ever happened to me at ILTC.

As the days rolled on, the isolation of Dorm 1 forced us to bond. My room, in particular, grew incredibly close. What started as polite, tentative "excuse me"s to squeeze past the bed to get to the sink quickly dissolved into deep, late-night conversations I never could have imagined having before coming to Perlman.

What started as a “are you next for the shower” turned into connected conversations, where we seemed to already know the orders of things and who even took the longest. 

My room was also as cramped as it could've gotten. Originally having 7 people (with only six beds) assigned to our room, we knew it was going to be tough to unpack and get situated. But it felt so easy and so quick, as if time just moved faster than anything. 

My takeaway from being situated in such an awkward yet amusing dorm is that those small moments that were originally thought to be burdens turned into wonderful and joyful moments or conversations that I will cherish forever. Never would have thought that one shower, two toilets, and a sink barely touching a bunk bed could have such a great impact on my life.