Michael Reed | Contributing Writer

I’ve noticed that when we go to college, we go into a different world than we were used to for the last twelve years of our lives. I have also noticed at college that there are so many types of personalities and diversity of individuals coming to colleges all the time. That can be very overwhelming, but exposure to different individuals can also be a good thing. I feel that college builds us up for the real world that we have to face once we are adults. Graduating from college is a wonderful goal. But with greatness comes many obstacles. The obstacles we can face here at Buena Vista University can be the people who can cause what is known as “dorm drama.”

Dorm drama can be defined as disagreements involving two or more people that have different views, escalating from something that could have been solved easily by talking to each other as adults. Many students are just different from each other and do not know how to approach certain people about uncomfortable topics.

I want to talk about a few different types of difficult people we all need to find a way to deal with. None of us want drama, but we need a little guidance on how to keep tension out of the dorms and out of our lives because it causes so much unnecessary stress. This can lead to sleep problems, obesity, depression, digestive problems, and heart disease. I know we do not want that for ourselves or anyone else, so here are some ways to relieve the problem of dorm drama:

First step: Know better – just know better than to be judgmental of someone because there can always be an underlying reason why they are acting the way they are.

Second step: Don’t get involved – sometimes it is best not to get involved and just smile and ignore.

Third step: Get over it – don’t give those causing the drama the satisfaction by giving them attention.

Fourth step: Vent only to someone that you can truly trust – it is always good not to talk about a disagreement with just anyone because you never know what they may do with that type of information.

Fifth step: Don’t feed into it – don’t let the person see you getting mad because it gives them more incentive to do continue the drama.

I hope you enjoyed reading about this topic as much as I did writing it. I hope that you will take this advice in to account to make you and your environment better. Until next time, it’s been a pleasure.

Photo by Makensie Brown