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#ChinoyTips: For The College Dormer

[Trigger Warning: This article contains mention of depression which may cause distress to audiences.]

For some of us, entering college means leaving home and living all on our own (or sometimes, with a few roommates!). It will be such an exciting experience as it will give you a new kind of freedom and independence. However, it can also be stressful at times; especially when you have to cook your food everyday or to budget your daily spendings. Thus, we asked three Chinoys to share some life hacks so that you can have an easier time adjusting in your new home!

1) Store as much food as you can

Rosanne Tan is a third year student of the University of Santo Tomas. Since she lives quite far from the school, she chose to live in a dorm for efficiency. With more than 2 years of experience of being a dormer, her number one tip would be to store as much food.


Source: Good Housekeeping

“Living in a dorm especially if you’re alone will definitely make you reach peak laziness. As easy as it is to dine out or get delivery, you’ll eventually get tired of ordering food and want something home cooked—that’s why I bring in precooked meals with me to the dorm. Having food stored in the fridge is so convenient for me when I want to have something quick, especially coming back from school tired, and I don’t wanna leave my room anymore. I usually eat my baon for dinner because that’s when I have the time to cook rice. I just prefer to cook my own rice rather than buying so it’s nice & steamy, plus I get to save money! I also suggest having other kitchen appliances if you can so you don’t always use the microwave. I personally like to reheat my food in the toaster or steam it on the rice cooker.”

2) If you can find free food, don’t waste the opportunity 

In order to save a lot of pocket money, being innovative on your food is really a good trick. Aside from storing food, you can also grab the opportunity whenever there are org events that offer meals. Take it from Adrian Pe, a three-year dormer studying in De La Salle University.


Source: Tiffanie Bejar

“Org events usually offer free lunch or dinner. Aside from serving good food, you can also save a lot of money from these! So don’t waste the opportunity!”

3) Choose your roommate wisely


Source: Rebloggy

Another life hack that Adrian gave is to choose your dorm roommate/s wisely. He said “make sure that your roommate is organized and clean because if not, you will end up cleaning every time. This could result in losing items or misplacing belongings which may eventually cause tension between roommates. So better choose someone who will keep the dorm tidy.”

4) Make friends

Iñigo Uyguangco is a third year student of Ateneo de Manila University. Since he lives in the province, he dorms near the campus during the school year. Being away from family for how many months, his greatest lesson as a dormer is to make friends.

“These people will make you feel more sane in the intensity of College. You’re away from home and you surely will be feeling a bit lonely, so might as well meet your college family that makes things lighter. I had one of my biggest breakdowns (due to stress from too many orgs + academics) late last year and I was at my tipping point (mentally). I think I was depressed but I was too broke to actually visit a therapist so I’d decided to open up about it to my friends. They showered me with love and it made things a lot easier knowing there was someone there. Plus it also helps that they’re a bunch of nerds that made me study for things I didn’t want to.”

5) Enjoy the freedom of living on your own

Now that you’re away from your family, you will experience a different kind of independence. Hence, Rosanne says, enjoy it!

“It becomes even more fun when you have friends who are also dormers! Being away from home and living in a dorm whether you’re alone or with roommates gives you this somewhat privilege of independence. For me, it’s fun to have friends over or hangout at their place to kill the time during long breaks or to study together. My friends and I sometimes meet up in one of our dorms after class to finish schoolworks. I remember this one time we were loaded with online activities and also a group project that were all due the next day so we stayed in one of my friend’s dorm in España, I think we were about 10. It took us until dawn to finish everything that some of us decided to sleepover because it’s so dark outside and campus gates were already closed (we pass through campus for safety purposes). We have a 7 AM class that day so after catching some sleep, we packed up our things and left to go back to our dorms. It’s still funny to me how we looked so tired & sleepy walking back to our dorms while other people were already in their uniforms going into class.”

Do you have more tips for the new college dormers? Be sure to comment it down below!

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