Living with 49 Women

Men’s most vivid dreams involve multiple women living under one roof, walking around in their nightgowns while constantly starting pillow fights (a fascination I still don’t understand). In the morning, they usually wake up and instantly become disappointed once they look to their right and see their 10-year-old Beagle drooling on the pillow.

News flash: women who reside in the same home don’t start pillow fights. While we walk around in our pajamas from time to time, we honestly look extremely rough majority of the day. I’m fully aware of the truths and lies regarding living with multiple women because I live in a sorority house.

I tend to get an array of responses when I inform people of my living inside a sorority house. Retorts include, “Wait, what?” “Oh wow.” “Do you have to share a bathroom?” “How do you ever get any sleep?” My replies comprise of, “Yep.” “Yep.” “I sleep plenty.”

Let me add that living in a sorority house doesn’t look anything like House Bunny. We don’t all sit down at a long, mirror-supplied table and apply our makeup at the same time. Nor do we run a daily car wash for local fraternity men. While Anna Faris plays a hilarious role within that movie, the scenes dramatize sorority house-life way too much. Basically any movies surrounding Greek life portray it all wrong.

First off, the 49 women (including myself) living inside my sorority house do not all live on one floor. Can you imagine the body heat flowing throughout that hallway? Disgusting. Two floors separate us, but our gathering place deemed “the day beds” unite us all back together—especially when The Bachelor starts playing. How many sorority women can you fit on two U-shaped couches? Well, 49. We don’t play when it comes to catching up on who got the boot and who got a rose.

As far as bathrooms go, my roommate and I share a shower, sink and commode with our suitemates. While we do have a group text to clarify everyone’s shower times, sharing a bathroom doesn’t suck as much as you’d think. Sharing is caring, people. Brushing my teeth next to my roommate while she tries on her new lipstick gets placed on the very bottom of my “to worry about” list. Tests, interviews and my pants becoming too small take top priority of my worries.

The bedroom sizes vary within my house. While some rooms accommodate three women, most allow for two. Some rooms offer enough space for beds to maintain a good distance from one another, and others offer zero space in between beds. My roommate and I hold hands every night just because we can. Our beds have created a very strong bond, so cute actually. We each get our own desk, closet and dresser. Actually, let me correct myself. We each get our own desk and dresser, but we honestly share 47 other closets.

While living in a sorority house surely doesn’t attract every woman, I’m forever grateful I made my chapter a physical home. Constantly being surrounded by motivational, strong women encourages me to strive for more. Waking up and walking down the hall, I’ll notice my sisters putting on dress pants in preparation for their interview in an hour. Or when I walk into the kitchen for my morning coffee, I witness a sister heavily studying for the MCAT. Slowly but surely, my sisters shape me into a better woman. From the convenience to the comfort of living in my sorority house, I wouldn’t change a thing. I already have such strong bonds with each of my sisters, but living under one roof causes bonds to become more and more powerful.

Whether passing each other in the hallway, sitting down to eat flank steak and mashed potatoes (yum) or laughing hysterically about nothing, a constant positive vibe circulates throughout the house.

But oh man, if these walls could talk, they’d have some stories to tell. Well, if you enjoy hearing stories about boys who confess their love to you, only to find out they were just seen outside of Clyde’s with another girl.